Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/25/153/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 04:41:31+00:00

Document:
"It is my will and I do order and appoint that if either of my said sons should depart this life without lawful issue, his share or part shall go to the survivor, and in case of both their deaths without lawful issue, then I give all the property to my brother John E. and my sister Hannah J. and their heirs."
Joseph, one of the sons, died without lawful issue in 1812, leaving his brother Medcef surviving, who afterwards died without issue. Held that Joseph took an estate in fee defeasible in the event of his dying without issue in the lifetime of his brother, that the limitation over was good as an executory devise, and on the death of Joseph vested in his surviving brother Medcef.
This Court adopts the local law of real property, as ascertained by the decisions of the state courts, whether those decisions are grounded on the construction of the statutes of the state or form a part of the unwritten law of the state.
The court therefore considered it unnecessary to examine the question arising upon the above devise as a question of general law or to review and attempt to reconcile the cases in the English courts upon similar clauses in wills, the construction of this clause having been long settled by a uniform series of adjudications in New York, and having become a fixed rule of property in that state.
my will, and I do order and appoint that if either of my said sons should depart this life without lawful issue, his share or part shall go to the survivor. And in case of both their deaths without lawful issue, then I give all the property aforesaid to my brother, John Eden, of Loftus, in Cleveland, in Yorkshire, and my sister, Hannah Johnson of Whitby, in Yorkshire, and their heirs."
"That in all cases where any person would, if this act had not been passed, at any time hereafter become seized in fee tail of any lands by virtue of any devise before made or hereafter to be made, such person, instead of becoming seized thereof in fee tail, shall be deemed and adjudged to become seized thereof in fee simple absolute."
good as an executory devise, and the defendant would consequently be entitled to judgment.
A judgment was entered upon the special verdict in the court below for the defendant pro forma by consent of parties for the purpose of bringing the cause before this Court.
courts on these questions would be an arduous, and to reconcile them, a difficult if not a fruitless undertaking. Nor are the decisions of the state courts in our own country in perfect harmony with each other. It is not deemed necessary, however, in the present case to enter into an examination of these various decisions either for the purpose of attempting to reconcile them or to extract from them principles which might be applicable to the case now before the Court if the question was considered entirely an open question. The inquiry is very much narrowed by applying the rule which has uniformly governed this Court that where any principle of law, establishing a rule of real property has been settled in the state courts, the same rule will be applied by this Court that would be applied by the state tribunals.
This is a principle so obviously just and so indispensably necessary under our system of government that it cannot be lost sight of.
The inquiry, then, is whether the question arising in this case has been so settled in the state courts of New York, as to be considered at rest there. Numerous cases have come before those courts upon this question, some on the very clause in the will now under consideration, others on wills containing clauses very analogous, and which, in those courts at least, have been considered identical with the present.
these decisions, to see the steady and uninterrupted course of the courts upon the question, and how firmly the principle has become engrafted in the law of that state as a rule of landed property.
"My mind and will is that if any of my said sons, William, Jacob, Thomas, and John, or my daughter Mary shall happen to die without heirs male of their own bodies, then that the lands shall return to the survivors, to be equally divided between them."
And it was held by the court unanimously that this clause did not create an estate tail, but was to take effect as an executory devise. In the case of Anderson v. Jackson, the doctrine of that case was considered applicable to the Eden will and to govern its construction. And it was not pretended by the dissenting members of the Court of Errors, but that if the case of Fosdick v. Cornell was correctly decided, it would govern the case then before the Court. And the whole strength of the argument in the very elaborate opinions given by the dissenting members was applied to the purpose of endeavoring to show that the decisions in that case and in those which rested upon it had proceeded upon incorrect views of the law as decided both in the English and American courts. Chancellor Kent here took occasion to announce his change of opinion on this question, and to say that although he did not deliver the opinion of the court, he would not shelter himself under his silence, but partook of the error; but that he had discovered years ago that the case of Fosdick v. Cornell was decided on mistaken grounds. If this should be admitted (which I certainly do not mean to admit), it is an error which has been so repeatedly sanctioned by all the courts of that state for the last twenty years that it has ripened into a settled rule of law. And a reference to the cases which followed that of Fosdick v. Cornell, will show that it has become a rule so fastened upon the law of real property in that state as to make it unwise and unsafe to disturb it.
"all his estate, real and personal, to his six children, to be equally divided between them, share and share alike, but if any of them died before arriving at full age, or without lawful issue, that then his, her, or their part should devolve upon and be equally divided among the surviving children and to their heirs and assigns, forever."
"The greatest difficulty that arises in starting the main point for consideration, is to avoid being overwhelmed and confounded by the multitude of cases. Lord Thurlow said there were fifty-seven cases on this point, and we know they have greatly increased since."
"The point whether the limitation over operates as an executory devise, or to create an estate tail, admits of very little difficulty. The case of Fosdick v. Cornell is in point, that this is a good executory devise,"
"I believe none of us have ever doubted the correctness of the decision in that case, and it would be a waste of time to review the authorities there cited."
"is the law of the land, and must govern every other case coming within the same principle. And I must be allowed to say that subsequent reflection has confirmed my conviction of the soundness of the decision in the Court of Errors. Stare decisis is a maxim essential to the security of property. The decisions of courts of law become a rule for the regulation of the alienation and descent of real estate, and when that rule has been sanctioned and adopted in our courts, it ought to be adhered to unless manifestly wrong and unjust."
rule of law affecting titles to real property. But we have not, in my view of the subject, the power (and by power I mean right) now to question or impeach that judgment rendered by this Court, and founded on the uniform decisions of the supreme court during a period of more than seventeen years. Wills have been made and estates settled on the principle of these cases, which have been deemed and treated as the settled law of the land."
And the judgment of the supreme court was unanimously affirmed, with the exception of one senator.
After such a settled course of decisions, and two of them in the highest court of law in the state, upon the very clause in the will now under consideration, deciding that Joseph Eden did not take an estate tail, a contrary decision by this Court would present a conflict between the state courts and those of the United States, productive of incalculable mischief. If, after such an uninterrupted series of decisions for twenty years, this question is not at rest in New York, it is difficult to say when any question can be so considered. And it will be seen by reference to the decisions of this Court that to establish a contrary doctrine here would be repugnant to the principles which have always governed this Court in like cases.
It has been urged, however, at the bar that this Court applies this principle only to state constructions of their own statutes. It is true that many of the cases in which this Court has deemed itself bound to conform to state decisions, have arisen on the construction of statutes. But the same rule has been extended to other cases, and there can be no good reason assigned why it should not be when it is applying settled rules of real property. This Court adopts the state decisions because they settle the law applicable to the case; and the reasons assigned for this course, apply as well to rules of construction growing out of the common law, as the statute law of the state, when applied to the title of lands. And such a course is indispensable in order to preserve uniformity, otherwise the peculiar Constitution of the judicial tribunals of the states and of the United States would be productive of the greatest mischief and confusion.
"If the act then in question was for the first time to be construed, the opinion of the court would be, that the deed was not properly proved, and therefore not legally recorded. But in construing the statutes of a state on which land titles depend, infinite mischief would ensue should this Court observe a different rule from that which has been long established in the state."
upon this point, to acquiesce in the decision of the supreme court of that state, Smith v. Folwell, 1 Binn. 546, that the word "heirs" in the will is to be construed to be a word of limitation.
In that case this Court adopted a single decision of the state court upon the question. But in the case now under consideration there have been two decisions in the two highest courts of law in the state upon the identical question now in judgment, and which were in conformity to a settled course of adjudications for twenty years past.
After such a series of adjudications for such a length of time in the state courts upon the very point now before us and relating to a rule of landed property in that state, we do not feel ourselves at liberty to treat it as an open question.

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