This is a bill in equity, filed on the twenty-fifth of June, 1881, in the circuit court of the United States for the Southern district of Mississippi, by Florida Laughlin, the wife of Edmund C. Laughlin, against Joseph D. Mitchell, and also against Jefferson Davis and Joseph H. D. Bowmar, as executors of the last will and testament of Joseph E. Davis, deceased.
The allegations of the bill are substantially as follows:
The plaintiff is the owner and in possession of a plantation in Warren county, Mississippi, known as 'Diamond Place.' She is a daughter of Joseph E. Davis, deceased. The defendant, Mitchell, is the grandson of Davis. Davis died in 1870, leaving a last will and testament, which was duly admitted to probate, in the proper court, in September, 1870. The will was executed on the eighteenth of March, 1869. Its second and third articles were as follows: '(2) I give and devise to my daughter, Florida Laughlin, the estate known as the 'Diamond Place,' in said county of Warren, containing about one thousand two hundred acres, for and during her natural life, with full enjoyment of the profits and privileges thereunto belonging. (3) I give and devise to my grandson, Joseph D. Mitchell, the plantation known as the 'Diamond Place,' in the county of Warren, containing about one thousand two hundred acres, now in possession of and occupied by my said daughter, Florida Laughlin, who has a life-estate therein, with appurtenances thereunto belonging, on the death of my said daughter, Florida Laughlin, to hold and enjoy the same in fee-simple; but in case my grandson, J. D. Mitchell, should not survive my daughter, Florida Laughlin, and should die without issue, I give and devise said Diamond Place to my nephew, Joseph E. Davis, son of Hugh R. Davis, of Wilkinson county, Mississippi.'