Nuckols v. Nuckols

On March 13, 1979, Eleanor S. Nuckols, an eighty-four-year-old widow, executed two deeds of conveyance. The first conveyed to Ernest B. Nuckols, Jr., and Hilda Nuckols, the grantor’s son and daughter-in-law, jointly, “an estate for their lifetimes” in approximately two acres of land in Cumberland County, including a dwelling. The other conveyed to Ernest Nuckols alone in fee simple an adjoining eighteen-acre tract improved with growing Christmas trees.

On August 27, 1980, J. Taylor Williams, Eleanor Nuckols’ son-in-law, filed in her name and in his capacity as her attorney-in-fact a bill of…