Case ID: nc_197/html/0353-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Brogden, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

C. H. HAMILTON, Commissioner, v. R. H. HENDERSON.
    (Filed 12 June, 1929.)
    Parties B b — Heirs of grantor of deed providing for reversion are necessary parties in action by grantee’s heir to enforce contract of sale thereof.
    An estate for life convoyed by deed upon conditions affecting a reversion cannot be judicially determined when the heirs at law of the deceased grantor having a possible interest therein are not made parties, and when this defect of parties appears on the record the Supreme Court will remand the case in order that they may be joined.
    Civil actioN, before Harding, J., at November Term, 1928, of MECKLENBURG.
    On 14 November, 1884, R. M. Armour and wife conveyed a certain tract of land to Stanford Holdsclaw and wife. After describing the land so conveyed tbe following language occurs in tbe deed: “To bave and to bold tbe aforesaid lot with all tbe appurtenances thereto belonging, including tbe right of dower of tbe said L. C. Armour (feme covert) to tbe said Stanford Holdscla.w and wife during their natural life and tbe parties of tbe second part hereby agree not to dispose of said lot to any one except tbe parties of tbe first part, or by their consent or their heirs’ consent.
    And it is further agreed that at tbe decease of tbe parties of the second part that tbe title of said lot shall revert to tbe parties of tbe first part, their heirs, executors and assigns, they paying a fair price for the same.
    In witness whereof, tbe parties of both parts bave hereunto set their bands and seals, this 14 November, 1884.” R. M. Armour, L. C. Armour, Stanford Holdsclaw, Hannah Holdsclaw.
    L. C. Armour, wife of one of tbe grantors, died in 1891, and R. M. Armour, tbe other grantor, died in July, 1913. Stanford Holdsclaw died in 1913, and thereafter bis wife, Hannah Holdsclaw, died intestate, leaving two sons, to wit, Walter Johnson and Will Houser. Walter Johnson died intestate in 1918, leaving a widow, Ida Johnson, and the following children, to wit: Walter Johnson, Parks Johnson, Willie May Johnson, Harry Lee Johnson and Bernard Johnson. Will Houser died in 1923, intestate, leaving a widow but no child or the representative of any child.
    It was admitted that the land had been “in the adverse, open and non-disputed possession of the heirs at law of Hannah Holdsclaw since . October, 1913.”
    The above named heirs at law of Walter Johnson and his widow filed a petition in the Superior Court for the sale of said land for division, and the plaintiff Hamilton was appointed commissioner to make the sale. The sale was made on 4 July, 1927, and the defendant Henderson became the last and highest bidder for the land. When the plaintiff tendered a deed for said property to the defendant he declined to accept the deed and pay the purchase money upon the ground that said deed could not and did not convey a good title. The trial judge decreed that “Hannah Holdsclaw had only a life estate in the land described in the deed, and that at the death of said defendants, Holdsclaw and wife, Hannah Holdsclaw, the property reverted to R. M. Armour or his heirs at law, “they paying a fair price for the same,” from which judgment the plaintiff appealed.
    Z. V. Turlington for j>lcdntijf.
    
    
      No counsel for defendant.
    
   Brogden, J.

It appears that the heirs at law of the grantors have not been made parties to this action, and therefore their rights, if any, cannot be determined unless they are brought into court and afforded an opportunity to assert any claim they may have. The cause is remanded to the end that the heirs at law of the grantors may be duly made parties to the proceeding.

Remanded.