Court Opinion

ID: 9850495
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:58:12.446855+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:38.111197
License: Public Domain

Duckworth, Chief Justice,
dissenting. Absent an intention of both husband and wife at the time the deed was made that the property was conveyed to the wife in trust and not in fee as the deed recites, a gift was thereby consummated. Code § 108-116. This consummated gift can not be reduced by subsequent conduct or statements of the parties to an estate in trust. Vickers v. Vickers, 133 Ga. 383 (65 SE 885, 24 LRA (NS) 1043); Jackson v. Jackson, 146 Ga. 675 (92 SE 65); Williams v. Thomas, 200 Ga. 767 (38 SE2d 603). In the Vickers case, supra, it is said at page 384: “But an absolute gift will not be *817cut down by implication into a trust merely because the donor hoped and believed at the time the gift was made that the donee would share the beneficial interest of the property with him or with a third person. It must appear from the entire transaction that there is an obligation on the part of the holder of the legal title to hold it for the benefit of someone else.” (Emphasis supplied.) Obviously, this court overlooked the above older decisions in Ward v. Ward, 186 Ga. 887 (199 SE 195); consequently, that decision must yield to the above older decisions. While Justice Hawkins and I dissented in Adams v. Adams, 213 Ga. 875 (102 SE2d 566), and it is therefore not controlling, it cited only Ward v. Ward, 186 Ga. 887, supra, to support the ruling, and thus it is unsound.
There is absolutely nothing in this record to show an intent, a promise, or moral obligation resting upon the wife at the time of the conveyance to her to obligate her to hold the property in trust for the benefit of the grantor. The conveyance being thus without condition expressed or implied, acts and words of either or both of the parties to that deed subsequently can not change the consummated gift. Of course, her pleadings where she prayed that this property be given to her as alimony, although stricken by amendment, could, nevertheless, be introduced in evidence against her, but it amounts to no more than her erroneous understanding of the legal effect of the deed. This is overwhelmed by an array of affidavits the husband made subsequent to the deed in which he swore that the land belonged to her, and he did this to induce lenders to rely upon her title.
I must, for the foregoing reasons, dissent.
I am directed by Mr. Presiding Justice Candler to state that he concurs in this dissent.