Case ID: va_30/html/0546-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

*Christian and Wife and Another v. Coleman’s Adm’r and Others.
    May, 1831.
    (Absent Tucker, P., and Brooke, J.)
    Hotchpot — Advancements—Profits of Lands in Possession of Children during Life of Hother. — A mother tenant for life of lands, gives possession of several parcels thereof, to four of her children, respectively, to be cultivated by them for their own use, but makes them no conveyance; these children hold the respective parcels of land, as tenants at will of their mother, till her death, taking the profits to their own use, no rents being rendered or demanded: Held, they are not bound to account for these profits, and bring them into hotchpot, as an advancement, real or personal, in the division and distribution of the mother’s estate, under the statutes 1 Rev. Code, ch. 96, § 17, ch. 101, § 29.
    Elizabeth Coleman died in 1819, seized and possessed of sundry real and personal estate, and intestate. Her daughter Mary, who afterwards married Daniel Christian, her sons James, Thomas and Samuel, and her grandchildren, John, Elizabeth, Robert, Eindsay and James Hardwick, the children of her deceased daughter Anne Hardwick, were her heirs and distributees. . Her son Thomas was her administrator. Mrs. Coleman had been, during her life, entitled to a life estate in lands devised to her by her husband, who died in 1778; and, many years before her death, she put several parcels of this land into the possession of her sons, Thomas, Samuel and James, as they attained to manhood, and her daughter Nancy, when she married, to cultivate for their own use, respectively ; but she made no conveyance to either; they were all mere tenants at will; and so they continued to hold till her death, enjoying the profits without any account rendered or demanded. To her daughter Mary she did not give the use of any of the land : this daughter remaining unmarried, lived with her mother, after her attainment to full age, without being charged for board or maintenance, and on her part rendering her mother in her old age, such services as were proper to the relation between mother and daughter in their condition of life.
    *In a suit brought by Christian and wife and James Coleman against their co-heirs and distributees, Thomas and Samuel Coleman and the five children of Mrs. Hardwick, and Thomas as the administrator of.his mother, among various points of controversy between the parties, one was, "Whether, in the division and distribution of the mother’s estate, James, Thomas, Samuel, and the children of Mrs. Hardwick, respectively, were bound to account for the profits of the several parcels of land, of which their mother, during her life, had given them the use, and which they had held till her death without rendering rent, and to bring the profits into hotchpot as an advancement, real or personal, according to the statutes of descents and distributions ? See 1 Rev. Code, ch. 96, § 17, ch. 104, § 29. pp. 357, 382.
    The chancellor, in an interlocutory decree determining all matters in controversy in the cause, declared, that these profits were-not to be regarded as advancements to the parties, respectively, who had enjoyed them by their mother’s permission, and that they were not bound to account for and bring them into hotchpot in the division of her estate. And upon an appeal from the decree to this court, taken by the plaintiffs below, this was the main point hero, and the only one involving any question of law.
    Johnson for the appellants.
    Stanard for the appellees.
    This court concurring with the chancellor upon the question, held, That the possession and use of the land given by the mother to the four children, being permissive and precarious, could not be considered as an advancement made towards their permanent establishment in life, nor could they have converted such a right as they held into money to be applied to that purpose.
    
      
       Hotchpot — Advancements.—The principal case is cited in foot-note to Knight v. Oliver, 12 Gratt. 33; Kyle v. Conrad, 25 W. Va. 780. See monographic note on “Advancements” appended to watkins v. Young, 31 Gratt. 8Í.