Brooks v. Kay

TOAL, Acting Chief Justice:

This case is a property dispute between a deceased woman’s children and a man who claims the woman deeded to him her property. The Court of Appeals upheld the transfer. We reverse.

Factual/Procedural Background

In 1944, Margaret Brooks (“Brooks”) and her husband Morris Brooks bought a little over 250 acres of land in Newberry County. They owned the property together as tenants in common. Morris Brooks died in 1982, leaving a life estate in the property to Brooks and the remainder divided among their three children Buddy, Ernest, and Morris (“the Children”). Therefore,…