Wood v. Reamer
Wood v. Reamer
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the couet bx
AppibminO.
This is an appeal from the Jefferson circuit court by appellant. It appears that appellee sold appellant a piece of real estate in the city of Louisville for the price of $310, and executed to him a bond for title, and took his note fon the purchase price. When it became due she tendered him a deed for the property, and demanded the money, which he refused to pay, and she brought this action. He based his refusal to pay the purchase price upon the claim that appellee could not make him a good and perfect title to the piece of land, for the reason as he claimed, that she only owned the life estate in the property. The lower court disagreed with him, and he has appealed.
The history of this title, wherein appellant claims that defects occur, is as follows: On the 31st of October, 1867, the appellee, then being Anna T. Cornwall and an infant, together with her mother, Amelia Cornwall, entered into an antenuptial contract with William C. Reamer, upon consideration of their approaching marriage, by which Reamer agreed in effect that, as soon as appellant should become of age, he would unite with her in a deed to. her mother as trustee, setting apart all of the property of appellee to her separate use. Pursuant to this agreement, on the 27th of January, 1868, William C. Reamer did unite with appellee in a deed conveying all her property to her mother in trust for her sole and separate use. Afterwards, John L. Cornwall, who was the only brother of the appellee, died intestate, and she inherited from him certain estate, and
' The áppellee is now a widow 57 years of age, and has never had any children, and has no descendants. Her only relatives are collateral kindred further removed than either mother or brother; and as to who, at the time of her death, will inherit from her is a question impossible to ascertain. The questions, in brief, in this case are, do the heirs at law of Mrs. Reamer take an interest in her property by the the deeds referred to? and does the trust created by the ■deeds still exist and can not be terminated?
The language of the antenuptial contract is as follows: ■“That with the consent of the party of the third part, the parties of the first and second parts have agreed to marry and that in consideration thereof the said Reamer agrees that all the property of every kind which the said Anna L. may own at the time of her marriage with him shall belong to her for her sole and separate use during her life with
Each of the deeds above referred to recites this marriage upon this consideration and tbe usual $1. The point of contract as the consideration therefor, and all are made contention in this case is the granting clause in the first deed, and the habendum clause in the subsequent deeds, which, however, are all in the same language, and which is. as follows: “Do hereby bargain and sell, convey and assign to the said Amelia Cornwall all the property of every bind which the said Anna owned at the time of her marriage with the said William C. Reamer, in trust for the «ole and separate use of the said Anna, during her life and after her death, if she should die intestate, to convey the same to the descendants of the said Anna, if any, in the same proportions as if it had descended from her, or to her heirs, if she should die intestate and without descendants living at the time of her death. But the said Anna, may dispose of the same by will as if she were a feme sote and the said Amelia, or any trustee appointed by the Louisville chancery court ®r any court exercising its
Appellant contends that it was intended and that the above language does create a voluntary settlement in favor •of the heirs at law of the appellee which has not been and •can not be terminated. Appellee contends that there was no intention to create any estate other than a separate estate ^r a married woman, which should be free from the marital rights of William C. Reamer; and that the trust created was a special trust, which terminated with the death of Reamer; and that the same was not a voluntary settlement, nor was there any intention to protect either the (descendants of the appellee or her heirs, except from the marital rights of her husband, William C. Reamer. We can not agree with the argument of appellant that the reason for making the contract and the deeds does not appear upon the fact of the papers; nor can it be inferred from the papers, or from any omisson in the papers, that it was the intention by executing them to protect Mrs. Reamer against her own improvidence. In fact, the contrary is shown by the papers themselves. The antenuptial contract recites that it is made in consideration of marriage, and the .•agreement is entirely upon the part of William C. Reamer. Anna L. agreed to do nothing and is not bound to anything by the same, which seems to us conclusive that nothing more was intended by the contract than is usual in such ■contracts; that is to say, that the husband waives and relinquishes his marital rights in the property of the wife-
The cases of Cox v. Coleman’s Adm’r, 13 B. Mon., 452, Hart v. Soward, 14 B. Mon., 301, and the later case of Brown’s Adm’r v. Brown’s Ex’rs, 13 S. W., 105, 11 Ky. Law Rep., 799, all hold, and it is the settled law of this State, that where a separate estate is created for a married woman, and she dies, unless there are words excluding the marital rights of the husband after her death, that at her death the separateestate is terminated, and the husband takes his marital rights in the property to the ex-
The word “heirs” or “descendants,” used in the creation of a separate estate for a married woman, will not, at her death, exclude the marital rights of the husband except aa to the children. And in order to exclude the marital rights of the husband as to collateral heirs, there must be a clear intention shown to prefer the collateral kindred to the exclusion of the marital rights of the husband'. Therefore it was necessary to go still further, and direct a conveyance to the heirs of appellee, failing descendants. It is our opinion that the marriage contract, considered in connection with the conveyances, gave to appellee a separate estate in her property, and the use of the words “descendants” and “heirs” was intended to exclude her husband from all interest in her property after her death, in the event she died before he did.
In view of these conclusions it necessarily follows that when appellee’s husband died the trust ceased, as the purpose for which it was created no longer existed, and consequently when her husband died she took the fee simple title .to all her property. Wherefore the judgment of the lower court is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.