Title: Cockrell v. Jones
Citation: 275 So. 2d 105
Docket Number: 47006
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: March 19, 1973

275 So. 2d 105 (1973) Hattie B. Winston COCKRELL v. James (Jim) JONES et al. No. 47006. Supreme Court of Mississippi. March 19, 1973. Stone &amp; Graham, Columbus, for appellant. Burgin, Gholson, Hicks &amp; Nichols, Robert Prather, Columbus, for appellees. ROBERTSON, Justice: Appellant, Hattie B. Winston Cockrell, appeals from a Decree of the Chancery Court of Lowndes County construing the Last Will and Testament of Willie A. Winston, deceased, as devising absolute fee simple title to all of his real and personal property to his second wife, Estella Jones Winston. The appellant, who was the daughter of Willie A. Winston by his first marriage, contends that only a life estate was devised to Estella and that the appellant, under Item III of Willie Winston's will, was devised the remainder estate at the death of Estella Jones Winston. The two items of the will in question were: These items were contained in what was prepared as a joint last will for Willie and Estella but which was signed only by Willie A. Winston. The will was probated as the Last Will and Testament of Willie A. Winston, deceased, on May 18, 1959. Although his estate has never been closed, the time has long since expired for the filing of a contest or caveat of his will. On July 11, 1960, an escrow agreement was entered into between Estella Jones Winston and appellant, Hattie B. Winston Cockrell, which recited in part: The warranty deed called for was executed by Estella and delivered to the appellant and was filed for record and recorded in the Lowndes County land records on June 13, 1961. After Estella's death in 1970, a petition for partition of real estate was filed by appellant on July 29, 1971, wherein she charged that the lands in question were owned by Willie A. Winston and Estella Jones Winston, as tenants in common, and that after Estella's death the remainder of Willie's estate, consisting of his undivided 1/2 interest, became appellant's property under Item III of Willie's will, and that Estella's undivided 1/2 interest descended to the appellees, who were her sole and only heirs at law, Estella having died intestate. In his final decree, the Chancellor found and adjudicated: There were only two assignments of error: (1) The Last Will and Testament of Willie A. Winston was improperly construed to mean that Estella Jones Winston inherited in fee simple all of the property of Willie A. Winston, and (2) That the Chancellor erred in finding and adjudicating that the escrow agreement executed by and between Estella Jones Winston and Hattie B. Winston Cockrell on July 11, 1960, estopped Hattie B. Winston Cockrell to assert any claim against the heirs at law of Estella Jones Winston or the real estate which is the subject of this suit. We do not reach the second assignment of error because we are of the opinion that the Chancellor correctly construed Item II of the Last Will and Testament of Willie A. Winston as devising an absolute fee simple title to Estella Jones Winston. *107 We find this language in Harvey v. Johnson, 111 Miss. 566, 71 So. 824 (1916): In Raworth's Estate, 211 Miss. 780, 52 So. 2d 661 (1951), this Court was confronted with a similar question and, in finding that Hazel Crampton was vested with fee simple title, again mentioned four cardinal rules of construction: We are of the opinion that under the authority of Harvey and Raworth the Chancellor correctly construed Item II of the Last Will and Testament of Willie A. Winston as vesting the absolute fee simple title to all of his property in his wife, Estella Jones Winston. The decree of the Chancery Court is, therefore, affirmed. Affirmed. RODGERS, P.J., and INZER, WALKER and BROOM, JJ., concur.