Gorman v. Ray
Gorman v. Ray
Opinion of the Court
Opinion or the Court by
The appellants sought, by their petition, to recover of the appellee a tract of land alleged to have been- devised to the female
It appears, from the judgment rendered under an. agreement to submit the law and facts to the court, that evidence was beard upon wbicb the court based its judgment dismissing the action and, as the record contains no statement of the evidence, it must be presumed to have authorized the judgment, unless the will of Isaac McBee should be construed to have only vested in Lucy A. Bay an estate for life in the land and the remainder in the appellant Elizabeth J. Gorman.
Tbe disposing provision of tbe will as to tbe land is in these words:
“ I give and bequeath to my daughter Lucy Bay and! to tbe heirs of ber body,” etc.
“ To ber, the said Lucy A. Bay, and to tbe heirs of her-body forever.”
According to repeated decisions of this court, this devise must-be understood as creating an estate tail as defined by tbe common law, unless it appears from other expressions indicating the.testator’s intention that be used tbe language quoted with a different meaning, and we perceive nothing in tbe entire will to-authorize tbe latter inference.
And, as by the eighth section of chapter 80 of the Bevised Statutes, estates tail are converted into fee-simple estates, we are of the opinion that on the death of Lucy A. Bay the land in controversy descended to ber daughter Elizabeth, subject to the life estate of the appellee.
Wherefore, tbe judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.