Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from the Mississippi Appeals Blog! To mark the occasion, I did a little research and found a suitable throwback decision from the Mississippi Supreme Court to summarize for you.
Old Ladies Home Ass’n v. Hall, 52 So. 2d 650 (Miss. 1951) (Civil – Contracts)
Affirming the chancellor’s decision overruling special and general demurrers asserted by residual beneficiaries in an action brought by a devisee to enforce a contract between himself and the testatrix wherein the testatrix (an elderly widow at the time) agreed to devise her property to him if he would move his family into her home and provide her with room and board (which he did), holding that the bill of complaint was sufficient and that the statute of limitations began to run when the testatrix died, not when things went south due to the lack of butter at Thanksgiving dinner:
Complainant charged that, in fulfillment of the contract, he and his family lived in Mrs. Douglas’ residence, that he paid taxes on it and repaired it from time to time, and furnished her and her foster daughter with suitable and acceptable board and food, heat and lights and other comforts and necessities, until Thanksgiving Day of November, 1943, at which time Mrs. Douglas became enraged about complainant’s failure to have butter on the table, and ordered complainant and his family to get out of the house. It was averred that Mrs. Douglas at all times kept two loaded pistols and a dagger in her home, and threatened physical violence to complainant’s infant son and that complainant feared for the safety of himself and his family. Complainant told her that he wanted to remain in the home and carry out his part of the contract, as he had previously done, and as he thereafter remained ready, willing and able to do, but Mrs. Douglas drove them from her home and refused complainant’s services.
PRACTICE POINT – As we are not presently in the throes of World War II, there is really no excuse to run out of butter on Thanksgiving.
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