77 S.E. 1000 | N.C. | 1913
Action to restrain waste and remove cloud from plaintiff's title, caused by a deed from J. N. Burch and wife to P. C. Woodhouse and wife, M. J. Woodhouse. The jury rendered their verdict as follows:
1. Was the deed executed by J. N. Burch and wife to P. C. Woodhouse and wife, M. J. Woodhouse, for the purpose of partition of the lands of the said J. N. Burch and M. J. Woodhouse, and that consideration alone? Answer: Yes. *56
2. Has the defendant, P. C. Woodhouse, since the death of his wife, committed waste on said land? Answer: No.
3. And if so, what damage has the plaintiff sustained? Answer: ______
4. Is the plaintiffs' cause of action barred by the statute of limitation? Answer: No.
Judgment on verdict, and plaintiff and defendant excepted and appealed.
It appeared in evidence that J. N. Burch and Mrs. M. J. Woodhouse, former wife of defendant, P. C. Woodhouse, were owners as tenants in common of certain lands in Alamance County, having inherited same from their father, Isaac Burch, deceased, and, on 10 January, 1886, these persons desiring to make voluntary partition of the property, executed mutual deeds for the different portions of the land, and, in the endeavor to carry out the purpose, the deed from J. N. Burch to his sister, Mrs. Woodhouse, in form conveyed an estate by entireties: "Hath bargained and sold and by these presents doth bargain, sell, and convey to P. C. Woodhouse and M. J. Woodhouse, and their heirs, a tract of land," etc., being the land in controversy; that Mrs. Woodhouse died many years ago without lineal descendants, having had issue born alive during coverture, and, since that time, defendant has been in possession and control of the land and claims to own same by survivorship and under the terms of the deed; that plaintiff, Mrs. Speas, is the child and sole heir at law of her father, J. N. Burch, deceased, and of her aunt, Mrs. Woodhouse. Upon these facts and under our decisions, the rights of these parties have been properly determined. The deed from J. N. Burch to his sister, Mrs. Woodhouse, did not convey and create any new estate, but only operated to sever the unity of possession between the tenants in common and ascertaining Mrs. Woodhouse to be the owner of the land as heir at law of her father. It constituted the wife's separate estate, and she could not be deprived of it by the fact that in a deed from her brother the husband was named as coowner. The principle has been applied in several of the later decisions, notably in Sprinkle v. Spainhour,
No error.
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