Summary
The Tennessee Supreme Court considered whether a surviving second wife acquired an interest in land through her deceased husband's will. The court held that deeds executed as part of a partition scheme among the heirs of Clarence E. Sowell passed no new title to T. E. Johnson, who was not an heir, and therefore his will could not devise the disputed interest to Dora Johnson. The decree denying her claim was affirmed.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the simultaneous deeds executed by the heirs of Clarence E. Sowell constituted a partition in kind that conveyed title or created a new estate in favor of T. E. Johnson and his wife.
- Whether T. E. Johnson acquired an inheritable interest in the lands that could pass to Dora Johnson under his will.
Holdings
- The deeds were part of a voluntary partition of Clarence E. Sowell's estate. A voluntary partition deed passes no title and creates no new estate; it only severs possession of property previously held jointly so that it is thereafter held in severalty.
- T. E. Johnson acquired no interest in the lands belonging to Clarence E. Sowell's estate through the partition deed. His only potential interest in the lands inherited by his wife was a right of curtesy, and Dora Johnson therefore acquired no interest in those lands under his will.
Key quotations
“It is settled that a voluntary deed of partition passes no title and creates no new estate bnt merely effects a severance of possession, whereby an estate theretofore owned jointly, is thereafter owned in sever-alty.” (206 Tenn. at 174-175)
“In this State it is a settled rule of property that an attempt to create an estate by the entirety in a partition deed passes no title and creates no new estate.” (206 Tenn. at 175)
Factual background
Clarence E. Sowell died intestate owning a 130-acre tract and an undivided one-half interest in a 62-acre tract, which descended to his three children. In 1935, the children and their spouses executed three simultaneous deeds as part of a partition scheme, including a deed conveying the remaining 35 acres of the 130-acre tract and the 62-acre tract to T. E. Johnson and his wife, Laura Adelle. Laura Adelle later died intestate, and T. E. Johnson remained in possession until his death in 1958; his will devised all property of which he died seized to his second wife, Dora Johnson.
Procedural history
Dora Johnson, the second wife and surviving widow of T. E. Johnson, filed an original bill seeking a sale for partition, asserting that T. E. Johnson had acquired an interest in lands through a partition deed and that she received that interest under his will. The Chancellor rejected the claim, ruling that the deed was part of a partition scheme and conveyed no new title or estate. The Tennessee Supreme Court affirmed.