Mellichamp v. Mellichamp

Citations

• 28 S.C. 125
• 5 S.E. 333
• 1888 S.C. LEXIS 24

Syllabus

<p>1. In construing a deed or other paper, the first effort of the court should be to ascertain the intention of the parties from the language which they have used.</p> <p>2. Under a deed of conveyance in fee to “M and the children she already has and may hereafter boar by her husband Eu — M then having children — a child born after the execution of the deed is entitled on its birth to be let into an equal share with the others. Partition ordered of this land during the life-time of M and E.</p> <p>3. M, holding a one-ninth interest in a tract of land in common with her daughter, who held the same interest, and owning another tract of land absolutely, convoyed this latter tract to said daughter “in lieu and bar of all her interest in and to the real estate” of her said mother. Held, that the daughter had not surrendered her own one-ninth interest held by her in common with her mother.</p> <p>4. An assignment of homestead to a tenant in common before partition is premature and therefore a nullity. But partition might be after-wards so ordered as to give to such tenant for his share that part of the land which includes the homestead so admeasured, if it can be done without injury to the other co-tenants.</p>