Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-01-21

alton of property, and It's subsection
according to equitable liability to the
debts of the ancestors?
"Is it not still the policy of the law
that inheritances shall vest rather than
be held In allegiance?
do we not favor those incidents OF
estates in fee that the widow be ac-
corded her dover, ETC.?
'Is there single reason for reject
ing the rule now, and in this state, that
was not pressed by the great lawyers
and Jurists when 1t was finally imbed-
ded in English jurisprudence as part
of the common law?
"The opposition to the rule has been
based largely on sentiment, and few,
if any, cases Of actual hardship Will
be found in the books. Planting them
selves on the premises that its OPERA
ton worked the defeat of the real In
tention of the grantor or testator as
expressed in conveyance or will, Its
detractors have assailed 1t with vitup-
Grafton and invective. forgetting that
numerous other rules of real estate
law, accepted without question, have
precisely the same effect and that the
intention to be effective must be con-
sistent with the rules of law.
Tho Of feudal origin, 1t (the rule)
Is not @ relic of barbarism or part OF
the rubbish of the dark ages. 1t is
part of system, artificial 1t is true,
but still system and a complete one"
Justice Weaver confesses to some
degree of surprise at finding the sug-
gestion in the majority opinion that
to frtk
ius of our institutions essentially diff
ferent from those of the English peo-
pie at the time of our separation.
IF such be the case" says he, then
the revolutionary fathers should be
called down from their pedestals and
relegated to the list of conspirators a.
gainst human rights"
A landed aristocracy was the essen
tial order of society and English insti-
buttons were founded on that idea, says
the dissenting justice, in substance.
The rule was revised to preserve that
order. 1t served to prevent subdivis-
ion of land and to concentrate 1T in
the hands of the few. Justice Weaver
says:
The inability of the majority of the
court to discover any difference be-
tween such institutions and those of a
people where the multiplicity Of land
owners is believed to be essential to
the general welfare, does not appear
to have troubled the supreme court of
the United States. which says that IN
England the rule in Shelly's case helps
to conserve the power and splendor OF
the ruling classes by keeping property
in the line of descent, which the rule
prescribes. Our policy is equality of
descent and distribution, etc.
Iowa's ruling classes" Justice Wea-
yer thinks, will have occasion to felic-
itate themselves on the opportunity
which the supreme court OF Iowa now
gives them to keep their lands In the
line Of descent and prevent undue en-
couragement of the plebeian classes 10
become independent proprietors.
Justices Weaver and Sherwin think
that there is no rule or doctrine con-
nected with the law of real estate so
productive of litigation and they antlc-
ipate great floods of 1T arising from the
adoption of the rule by the Iowa court
BECAUSE most men believe that the
word "heirs" is sufficient and ample
description when they refer In Wills to
the children and widows Of their loved
ones. Most wills are not drawn by
laws. but by neighbors. friends, min
;stars etc. The error of the use of the
wrong word means untold litigation for
Iowa courts, in the judgment OF the
minority Justices.
The creation of life estates IL not
repugnant to American institutions or
,ap Thev can be regulated. More
over, it is the tendency OF American
laws to promote simplicity Oh COLL
tracts; this the rule defeats.