{ "id": 11274322, "name": "ZADOCK RICE, Admr. of JOHN G. RICE, v. SOLOMON SATTERWHITE, et al. Exrs. of JAMES SATTERWHITE", "name_abbreviation": "Rice v. Satterwhite", "decision_date": "1835-06", "docket_number": "", "first_page": "69", "last_page": "72", "citations": [ { "type": "nominative", "cite": "1 Dev. & Bat. Eq. 69" }, { "type": "official", "cite": "21 N.C. 69" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C.", "id": 9292, "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "2 Hawks, 108", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Hawks", "case_ids": [ 11275858 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/9/0108-01" ] }, { "cite": "2 Hay. 356", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Hayw.", "case_ids": [ 11985277 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/3/0356-01" ] }, { "cite": "1 Mur. 42", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Mur.", "case_ids": [ 11275201 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/5/0042-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 431, "char_count": 7290, "ocr_confidence": 0.63, "pagerank": { "raw": 5.3890838027430246e-08, "percentile": 0.33732468572492064 }, "sha256": "f96aa1521bc1c00c289725a6c8d2f802e32bdc868d8befee838c6b93877c0cbf", "simhash": "1:11a7ecac9abdff9d", "word_count": 1283 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T18:52:55.525579+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [], "parties": [ "ZADOCK RICE, Admr. of JOHN G. RICE, v. SOLOMON SATTERWHITE, et al. Exrs. of JAMES SATTERWHITE." ], "opinions": [ { "text": "Gaston, Judge,\nafter stating the facts as above set forth, proceeded as follows: \u2014 It is proper to remark, that the will of the elder Satterwhite was made and proved before our act of 1827, (ch. 7th,) on the subject of contingent limitations, went into operation.\nNo question has been made here upon the seeming repug'nance between the particular disposition made by the testator of the negro Liney, in the clause above recited, and the universal disposition of his property after the death of his wife to all his children. None such could with propriety have been taken, for as it is the duty of the Court to reconcile the various dispositions in a will, wherever it can be done, the latter and general bequest must be understood as impliedly subject to the former and special bequest of this property.\nIt is apparent, that but for the words limiting the negro Liney, in the event of John Green Rice dying \u201c without an heir,\u201d his estate must be regarded as an absolute one. The gift of a chattel by will is the gift of the testator\u2019s entire interest therein, unless a different intent is expressed or can be implied from the will. The question presents itself, whether this limitation over has the effect of making the gift a defeasible or modified gift. It is clear, that John Green Rice could not die \u201c without an heir,\u201d in the legal sense of that word, while his uncles and aunts or any of their descendants remained in being. The word \u201c heir,\u201d must then be understood in some other than its legal sense, and the most obvious one is issue. -It is a question of construction, whether this dying without issue imports a failure of issue at any determinate time, or a failure of issue at any time. If the latter be the true construction, the limitation over is too remote, and therefore void. If the former, then the limitation may. be good, provided that the contingency be such, as if it happen at all, must occur within a life or lives in being, and twenty-one years and a few months thereafter. Now it has been settled by innumerable cases, which cannot be departed from, without doing violence to the law, that expressions referring to a dying without issue, unless explained by the context, do import a general indefinite failure of issue, that is, a failure of issue at any period. We can discover nothing in the context to change the legal meaning of these expressions. There is no room for supposing that the contingency contemplated was the legatee\u2019s dying under twenty-one years of age, for it qualifies the gift to him, and not its retention in the hands of the executors, during his-minority. It has been insisted, that the context shows, that the testator meant to tie up the failure of issue to the moment of the legatee\u2019s death, and that the legatee shall keep the negro, if he has issue surviving him, and not otherwise. We must have something in the will sufficiently explicit to warrant the interpretation, or we dare not make it. To die \u201c without an heir,\u201d is equivalent to dying without heirs. In Matthews v. Daniel, 1 Mur. 42, the phrase, \u201c if she shall depart this life without heir lawfully begotten of her body,\u201d and in Bryant v. Deberry, 2 Hay. 356, the phrase \u201cif no heir,\u201d and in Bailey v. Davis, 2 Hawks, 108, the phrase \u201c shall die without lawful heir,\u201d were all construed . . . . r M . to import an indefinite failure of issue; The expressions to \u201c return to my family, and to be equally divided amongst the rest of my children,\u201d leave the time when Liney and her issue are thus to return and to be divided, as indefinite as the dying without issue. This is to be done whenever that failure shall occur,\"whether at the death of the legatee, or at any subsequent period. In the case of Reily v. Fowler, 3 Bro. P. Ca. 299, it is supposed to have been decided, that words importing that on the death without issue, the property was to return to the executors, to he by them distributed, tied up the contingency to the lives of the executors, because they implied a personal trust, to be executed by the executors. This case, and the ground to which it was referred, have met the decided disapprobation of a great chancellor. See Bigge v. Bensley, 1 Bro. Ch. Ca. 187. But however that may be, the decision cannot affect the question here. In the case under consideration, there is no personal trust. The property is limited over to the testator\u2019s family, which he explains to be his children, and if the limitation were good, the interest is a transmissible one, and would pass to and vest in the representatives of these children, whenever the contingency should happen.\nThe cases l Murph. 42, Deberry,'% Hay. 356, and Bailey v. Davis, 2 \u00ae gW^\u2019 proved.\nThe plaintiff is entitled to the declaration which he prays for, and a decree should be made accordingly.\nPer Curiam. Decree accordingly.\nBy this act, all contingent limitations made to depend upon the dying of any person \u201c without heirs, or heirs of the body, or without issue, or issue of the body, &c., shall be held and interpreted to be a limitation to take effect when such person shall die not having such heir, &c. living at the time of his death, or born to him within ten months thereafter ; unless the intention of such limitation be otherwise expressly and plainly declared on the face of the deed or will creating it.\"", "type": "majority", "author": "Gaston, Judge," } ], "attorneys": [ "Devereux, for the plaintiff.", "Nash, for the defendants." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "ZADOCK RICE, Admr. of JOHN G. RICE, v. SOLOMON SATTERWHITE, et al. Exrs. of JAMES SATTERWHITE.\nIn a bequest of a slave to A., the words \u201cbut-should he die without an heir, the aforesaid slave to return to my family, and be equally divided amongst the rest of my children,\u201d refer to an indefinite failure of issue, and consequently the limitation is too remote.\nThe bill charged, that James Satterwhite, by his will, among other things, bequeathed as follows. \u201c I give and bequeath to my beloved grandson John Green Rice, one negro girl, Liney, and one hundred dollars, one folding table and one feather bed and furniture, after the death of my beloved wife, Frankey Satterwhite; to remain in\u00a1the hands of my executors, until he become of age, without any expense or charge to the aforesaid John Green Rice; but should he die without an heir, th'e aforesaid Liney and her increase to return to my family, and be equally divided among the rest of my childrenthat. by a subsequent clause he gave to his wife the use of all his property during her life, and at her death directed the same to be equally divided among his children : that the defendants were appointed executors, and had proved the will: that the legatee, John G. Rice, had died without issue, and under age, and that the plaintiff was his next of kin, and had taken out letters of administration upon his estate; and that the defendants denied the plaintiff\u2019s right to the negro Liney, and the other property abovementioned. The prayer was, that the plaintiff\u2019s title might be estab-fished, and he in some way secured in the succession, upon the death of the widow of the testator,\nJune, 1835.\nA general ofa tarta\" tor\u2019s whole made'after several par-tioular legacies, is to be taken as being subject to them.\nThe defendants in their answers admitted the allegation of the bill, and the only question between the parties was upon the construction of the will.\nDevereux, for the plaintiff.\nNash, for the defendants." }, "file_name": "0069-01", "first_page_order": 77, "last_page_order": 80 }