Broughton v. . Lane

Avery, J.: The question presented by this appeal is whether the land conveyed to Jones, as trustee, for the' sole and separate use of Eliza Broughton, passed by the deed executed by her husband and herself, in which the trustee Jones did not join. That the power of a married woman to dispose of land held by her under a deed of settlement is “not absolute, but limited to the mode and manner pointed out in the instrument,” seems to be the settled law of this State, whatever may be the rulings of other Courts. Hardy v. Holly, 84 N. C., 661; Kemp v. Kemp, 85 N. C., 491; Mayo v. Farrar, 112 N. C., 66; Monroe v. Trenholm, Ibid., 634. In Hardy v. Holly the feme covert was clothed with express authority to compel the trustee to sell and reinvest, and to *19 remove the trustee when she deemed fit, and the fund was to be held subject to her control or as if she were a feme sole. But her power as to the disposition of the property in which the trust fund should be invested, was, in writing, to direct the trustee to sell, etc. In the case at bar it was argued that the trustee should hold the land to the separate use of Eliza Broughton during coverture, and should, “ if requested by her in writing during the coverture, convey the same,” etc. The feme covert Eliza Broughton was “not only subject to the express restrictions” of the settlement “as to the manner of exercising such power as was granted to her, but she w7as dependent upon a strict construction of its terms for authority to make any disposition whatever of the property embraced in it.” Mayo v. Farrar and Hardy v. Holly, supra. As the trustee did not join in the deed to Babbitt, and there is no evidence that he executed any separate conveyance by the request of the cesiui que trust, we simply adhere to the repeated rulings of this Court in holding that the interest conveyed to Jones in trust for the separate use of Eliza Broughton did not pass by the deed of conveyance, in which her husband joined, to Luther Babbitt and was not transmitted by the subsequent conveyances to the defendants. Judgment Affirmed.