McAllister v. Mitchner
McAllister v. Mitchner
Opinion of the Court
delivei’ed the opinion of the court.
Upon the facts, as stated by the appellant herself, the appellee is entitled to the decree rendered in his favor. She made a deed conveying the land to her daughter, and delivered it to her upon some verbal agreement as to its future disposition in certain contingencies, and it was surrendered to her by her daughter before she died. Grant it all. The title was in the daughter by the conveyance, and its surrender and cancellation had no effect on the title. A deed cannot be delivered to the grantee as an escrow, and any verbal agreement between grantor and grantee qualifying the effect of a delivery is of no effect. We repudiate as unsound the doctrine that a surrender and cancellation of a conveyance of title to land in any manner affects the rights of parties, except where upon the principles of law there exist the elements of estoppel in pais, of which the surrender of the evidence of title might be one. In itself it amounts to nothing. Burton v. Wells, 30 Miss. 688 ; Partee v. Mathews, 53 Ib. 140; Kelly v. Wagner, 61 Ib. 299; Connor v. Tippett, 57 Ib. 594 ; Devlin on Deeds, § 300 et seq.; Reed on Stat. Frauds, § 782, 784, and cases cited 2 Amer. & Eng. Enc. Law, 719.
We would have been better satisfied with the decree if the Chancellor had taxed the complainant with the costs of all the testimony, or had divided it between the parties, as might properly have been done, in view of the fact that the case might have been set for
Reference
- Full Case Name
- A. L. McAllister v. J. W. Mitchner
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Deed. Delivery to grantee; not an escrow. A deed delivered to the grantee is not an escrow, and any verbal agreement qualifying the effect of such delivery is void. 2. Same. Surrender of deed to land. Title unaffected. Except where there exist the elements of an estoppel in pais, a surrender and cancellation of a conveyance of title to land in no manner affects the rights of the parties. Burton v. Wells, 30 Miss. 688 ; 43 lb. 140 ; 57 lb. 594; 61 lb. 299. 3. Same. Re-delivery to grantor. Does not revest title. Mere re-delivery to the grantor of an executed deed to land, though in accordance with a verbal agreement had at the time of making the instrument, will not operate to revest title in the grantor.