Case ID: ohio-st_22/html/0526-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By TnE Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

John Douglas v. D. C. Parsons et al.
    Error, reserved in the District Court of Licking county.
    This case depended upon the construction of an agree-' ment reading thus:
    “Eor value received, we, or either of us, promise to pay Robert A. Green and Ann Green, his wife, sixty-six dollars annually, during their natural lives.
    “Witness,” etc.
    Suit was brought, in Licking Common Pleas, to recover, upon this instrument, an installment for a period subsequent to the death of Robert and prior to the decease of Ann. That court held that the annuity ceased when Robert died, and gave judgment for the defendants. A petition in error was filed in the District Court, and the cause reserved for decision here.
    
      Charles H. Killer, for plaintiff in error:
    Notwithstanding the omission of express words of survivorship, the annuity continues to the surviving grantee. Shep. Touch. 210; Ib. 195; Miles v. Fisher, 10 Ohio, 1-5.
    The omission of restraining words, i. e., during their ‘“joint lives,” indicates an intent that it should continue in favor of the survivor. Tyler on Inf. & Cov. 376; Richardson v. Daggett, 4 Vt. 336; Draper v. Jackson, 16 Mass. 480.
    Cr. Atherton, for defendant in error:
    The obligation to pay the annuity ceased upon the death of Robert Green. 1 Parsons’ Cont. 11; 2 Ib. 76, 78.
    Joint tenancy in choses in action exists nowhere.
   By TnE Court.

An agreement to pay an annuity to a .husband and wife, “ during their natural lives,” binds the party to pay the annuity during the joint lives of the husband and wife, and during the life of the survivor.

[Note by Reporter. — After the preceding eases were decided, Hon. "Walter F. Stone took his seat, as a judge of this court, in place of Hon. William 11. West, whose resignation took effect on February 25, 1873.]

Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.