Kemble v. Beardsley
Kemble v. Beardsley
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Mrs. Ada Kemble, the widow of P. H. Kemble, who died December 16, 1916, sued 0. 0. Beardsley, the widower of her daughter Vera, upon a note. Liability upon the note was not denied, but Beardsley by way of cross demand set up a claim against the plaintiff for a part of the proceeds of a farm which she was handling as a trustee under her husband’s will. The validity of his claim depends upon the construction of the will. Judgment was rendered against Beardsley, the court holding that his answer stated no cause of action, and he appeals.
The will gave to the testator’s widow all his property excepting two adjoining quarter sections of land in Oklahoma. These were devised to the widow to be held by her in trust for purposes thus stated:
“That said Ada Kemble shall collect all the rents off of said land until January 1, 1925, and that the proceeds annually after the payment of taxes, insurance and the necessary repairs, shall be divided as follows, one-half to said Ada Kemble, one-fourth to my son Ralph B. Kemble, and one-fourth to*454 my daughter, Vera McQuitty. That said real estate shall' not be disposed of, and upon arrival of said time, to-wit, January 1, 1925, the said [describing the north quarter] shall be and become the absolute property of Ralph B. Kemble to enjoy or dispose of as he may see fit; and upon the arrival of said time, to-wit, January 1, 1925, the [south quarter] shall be and become the absolute property of Vera McQuitty to enjoy or dispose of as she may see fit.”
C. B. McQuitty, the husband of the plaintiff’s daughter Vera, died after the testator — the exact date not being stated. Vera died -intestate and without issue April 12, 1920, having in the meantime married Beardsley, who survived her. The decision necessarily indicated the holding of the trial court to be that after the death of Vera the share of the income of the Oklahoma land which would have gone to her if she had lived did not go to her surviving husband. The appellees — the testator’s widow and son- — claim that it went to them. It was stipulated in effect that no point should be made because of an administrator of Vera’s estate not having been appointed, and that Beardsley should recover if her personal representatives or heirs were entitled to any part of the rents and profits of the Oklahoma land in the hands of the plaintiff as trustee.
The appellees- urge that if these rents and profits be regarded as personal property the title upon the death of the testator vested in his widow by virtue of the clause in the will giving to her all his property except the two specified quarters of land. That position is untenable. The will is to be so construed as to carry out the purpose of the testator as gathered from the entire document. That he did not intend the rents and profits of the Oklahoma land to go to his wife alone is too plain for controversy, whether or not they are classified as personalty. The appellees cite in this connection a paragraph from Grossenbacher v. Spring, 108 Kan. 397, 402, 195 Pac. 884, but we regard it as inapplicable here because it had to do with a life annuity, which ceased with the death of the beneficiary. Although the trustee in the present case was directed to make an annual distribution of the profits of the land the payment was not an annuity in the ordinary sense, and certainly was not a life annuity.
The controversy chiefly turns upon the construction of a paragraph of the will which followed those already quoted, and read;
“I further direct that in case of the death of Vera McQuitty before said date, January 1, 1925, and prior to the death of her present husband, C. B. McQuitty, then said quarter of land, heretofore willed to her, shall be divided equally between my wife, Ada Kemble, and my son, Ralph B. Kemble, at the expiration of said term.”
Cases cited by the appellees contain language having some apparent tendency against the view that Vera acquired a vested interest in the land or its income. We do not regard them as applicable here because of differences in the facts out of which they grew. In one the will specifically provided that if a child of the testator should die leaving a consort, such surviving consort should receive $500 and no other part of the estate. (Brown v. Brown, 101 Kan. 335, 166 Pac. 499.) In another a remainder was devised to the living children of the life tenant if he had any living, otherwise to his brother or sister or their heirs. (Purl v. Purl, 108 Kan. 673, 197 Pac. 195.) In another the trustee was required to pay the income of real estate to the son of the testator during his life. (Johnson v. Cootbaugh, 109 Kan. 597, 201 Pac. 59.)
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded with directions to overrule the demurrer to the answer.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.