Jones v. Swearingen

Citations

• 42 S.C. 58
• 19 S.E. 947
• 1894 S.C. LEXIS 5

Syllabus

<p>1. Executor — Adverse Possession. — Where testator devised all of his lands to his widow for life, but to be under the management of his executors, with the right given to the widow and executors to allot portions to testator’s children after their marriage at an appraisement by three disinterested citizens, one of these executors cannot claim a tract of land of this estate by adverse possession against the remaindermen, where his claim rests upon a deed to him by the other executor, who claimed an allotment of this tract to him after his marriage, but without appraisement, and where the widow lived with the present claimant on the land.1</p> <p>2. Ibid. — Will—Betterments.—And under these facts, such claimant cannot demand the value of improvements put by him upon this tract of land: for his claim of title was inconsistent with the provisions of the will, of which he was executor, and of whose contents the law will presume him to have been informed.</p> <p>3. Ibid. — Commissions.—There was no error in refusing to allow commissions to an executor, when there was no testimony to show that he had made the returns required by law.</p> <p>4. Ibid. — Sale by Order oe Court. — Where an executor resists the claim of the devisees to a most valuable part of the estate, and the decision is against him, this court will not disturb the ruling of the Circuit Judge in ordering a sale of the estate by the officer of the court, instead of by this executor, as directed by the will.</p> <p>5. Deed — Words oe Inheritance. — Where a deed contains no words of inheritance, nor any words to suggest that such an idea was in the mind of the grantor, only a life estate passes.</p> <p>6. Ibid. — Parol Testimony is inadmissible to show the intention of parties to an ordinary unambiguous deed.</p> <p>1. Ibid. — Issues.—Where defendant claimed a fee simple title under his deed, he cannot complain on appeal that the Circuit Judge, on decreeing that he had only a life estate, failed to find tha