Stockett v. Goodman

Brent, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Most of the questions which have been presented in the argument in this case, are hot before us. They must be left for a decision when they properly arise, and when all the parties interested are in Court. Mrs. Stockett is not a ⁵⁸ party to these proceedings, and any view which we might now hold in relation to her right of' dower in the lands in question would be clearly obiter dictum, and not binding upon her.

She has not united with her husband in the mortgages which he has made, and there is no reason or necessity that she should have been made a party in this cause. This Court'has sometimes, to prevent future litigation, expressed an opinion upon matters not necessarily in the case, but it is never done against the declared wish of either of the parties to the case before them. The complainant insists that her case should not be encumbered and delayed by a question of' dower, which depends upon the contingency of survivorship, and where the party most interested, the wife, is not before the Court. We shall, therefore, make no further reference to this question.

The Circuit Court refused to consider it, and in so doing, committed no error. The mortgagor, Stockett, before he obtained the fee in the lands mortgaged, acquired the life estate, which a certain Mrs. McPherson had in them, for the payment annually during her life, of the sum of three hundred dollars, in half-yearly instalments, with the power reserved of distress in case of default, and the question arises whether this life estate so held by him is included in the mortgages. It is a familiar rule of law, that deeds are to be construed most strongly against the grantor, and favorably to the granteee. In the first mortgage, the terms of conveyance are, that he “does g.rant, bargain and sell, to the said William F. Worthington, his heirs, and assigns, all that tract or parcel of land, lying and being in Anne Arundel County, and known as Primrose Farm,” and in the second, that he “does hereby grant, bargain and sell to the said William R. Goodman, and his heirs, all that land, &c., constituting the farm of said Stockett, known as Primrose.” The reasonable construction to be placed upon this important part of the grant is, that it conveys ⁵⁹ the interest of the grantor, whatever it is, in the lands in question.

In the very able work of Sheppard, in discussing' the exposition of deeds, it is said, “if one have divers estates in land, (as for life and in fee,) and he make any charge or grant upon or out of it, this (grant or charge) shall issue out of all his estates. And if one have a possession and an ancient right, and grant a rent charge out of the land, or make a lease of the land, this (grant or charge) shall issue out of both estates, (Perlc., sec. 592,) (i. e., shall be binding on the estates as an estate, and amount to a conformation as to the right), and it shall enure from him having several estates, as it shall enure from several persons having the same estates, viz., Different estates in themselves respectively.” 1 Shep. Touch., 85 (to), 30 Law Lib., 169. This