Summey ex rel. Summey v. McDowell

The appellants assert that Vonzelle is the owner in fee of the land in question, together with the timber thereon, by virtue of the application of the rule in Shelley’s case.

“The rule in Shelley’s Case was first stated, 1 Coke, 104, in 1581, and is as follows: ‘When an ancestor, by any gift or conveyance, taketh an estate of freehold, and in the same gift or *362conveyance an estate is limited, either mediately or immediately, to his heirs in fee or in tail, the words heirs is a word of limitation of the estate, and not a word of purchase.’ ” Crisp v. Biggs, 176 N.C. 1-2, 96 S.E. 662.

The…