Court Opinion

ID: 9673701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:16:32.324735+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:23.657280
License: Public Domain

FAULKNER, Justice
(dissenting).
What the majority has done in this case is to call an end sweep when the game plan calls for a play up the middle. Whether an unincorporated association can hold title to real estate is still unsettled. A rose by any other name is still a rose. If the question of how a conveyance can be made from an unincorporated association were answered by the concurring opinion of the Chief Justice, I would be inclined to vote with him. But, that question is not answered. In most jurisdictions which permit unincorporated associations to hold title to real property, the title is vested in the members thereof jointly. Under that theory in our State each and every member and his or her spouse would have to join in the execution of a deed or mortgage. But, what happens when a member leaves or dies? Do his or her heirs and next of kin have to be tracked down to get their signatures? And, suppose a member flatly refused to sign, could good and merchantable title be conveyed by the remaining members ?
The majority holding that “the legal title to the property passed under the will to the incorporated church regardless of whether it was held in trust by the trustees of the church, individual members of the unincorporated church, or the next of kin of the testator, and passed to the church when it was incorporated” is reminiscent of two bird hunters. One had a steady aim, fired on a flushed covey and missed. The other was shaky with his gun, which wavered from side to side, up and down, and around in circles when he pointed it to a flushed covey. He fired and killed a bird. The one with the steady aim remarked to his friend, “You ought to have got one— you shot everywhere.” This story is told in good humor and not intended to reflect on the sincerity and integrity of the members of the majority.
Whether an unincorporated association which was subsequently incorporated was then capable of holding title to real estate was ruled upon by the Supreme Court of the United States in Trustees of the Philadelphia Baptist Association v. Hart’s Executors, 4 Wheat. (U.S.) 1, 4 L.Ed. 499 (1819). The Court, by an opinion delivered by Chief Justice Marshall, held that the Baptist Association, not being incorporated at the testator’s death, could not take title to the property given and bequeathed to it under the decedent’s will.
Under the facts in this case the wife of Whitaker, upon his death, became the life tenant with remainder over to the Equality Methodist Church if it could take. As the life tenant she became the trustee for the remainderman. Amos v. Toolen, 232 Ala. 587, 168 So. 687 (1936); Durden v. Neighbors, 232 Ala. 496, 168 So. 887 (1936); *88Abney v. Abney, 182 Ala. 213, 62 So. 64 (1913). And, as trustee, for the remainder-man, the life tenant could not injure or dispose'of the property to the injury of the remainderman. Durden v. Neighbors, supra; Abney, supra. By no act of the life tenant can the title of the remainderman be effected or destroyed. Hall v. Condon, 164 Ala. 393, 51 So. 20 (1909); McLeod v. Bishop, 110 Ala. 640, 20 So. 130 (1895).
The will read “in fee simple forever”. Even though a life tenant holds in trust for the remainderman, there must be a remainderman capable of taking title to the real estate. Under Title 61, § 4, Code of Alabama 1940, Recompiled 1958, a devise of lands may be made to any person or corporation capable by law of holding real estate. Section 5 of this title provides that any interest in real estate devised to a person or corporation incapable of taking, descends as in case of intestacy. A will speaks from death and without consequences from subsequent events. Blakeney v. DuBose, 167 Ala. 627, 52 So. 746 (1910). Although the intent of the testator must be as fully carried out as legally possible, his will must meet the requirements of the law. Sanford v. Alabama Power Company, 256 Ala. 280, 54 So.2d 562 (1951).
The majority does not answer the question as to ejectment by an unincorporated association. See Arnold v. Methodist Episcopal Church, 281 Ala. 297, 202 So.2d 83 (1967); Vaughn v. Pansey Friendship Primitive Baptist Church, 252 Ala. 439, 41 So.2d 403 (1949). If one has a piece of cake, lie ought to have the right to eat it.
In answer to question of “reserving judgment as to other types of unincorporated associations” mentioned by the concurring opinion, I see no reason in the eyes of the law why they should be treated any differently from a religious society, so long as it is for a legal purpose.
I respectfully dissent.
HARWOOD, J., concurs in the result.