Hoague v. Stanley
Hoague v. Stanley
Opinion of the Court
This is a petition brought by trustees under the will of Joseph F. Wight for instructions as to the disposition of certain real estate. The testator died September 10, 1909, leaving a widow, Martha L. Wight, but no lineal descendants. The will and a codicil were duly admitted to probate.
By the second clause of the will, he provided: “I give to my wife, Martha, the use income and improvement of my homestead estate in Wellesley, without the intervention of a trustee during her life.” The second clause also provided as follows: “And I authorize and empower my wife, if she finds it necessary for her comfortable support and maintenance, of which necessity she is to be the sole judge, to sell for that purpose such parts of the real estate contained in my said homestead estate as she deems best; except and provided, however, that she is not to sell the house and stable and land under and adjacent thereto, to the extent of ten acres, my wife to determine the limits and boundaries of said ten acres. It being my will that an estate of about ten acres, including therein my house and stable, shall upon the death of my wife become a part of my residuary estate and pass under the residuary clause of this will. I further authorize and empower my wife to sell land under this section of my will without applying to any court for a license therefor, and to give good and sufficient deeds to the purchasers thereof.” The homestead estate at the time of the death of the testator consisted of about sixty-eight acres with the buildings thereon.
The third clause of the will reads: “I give my dear wife Martha one-half part of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, but if the cash value of said residue of my estate at my death shall not amount to fifty thousand dollars, I give her twenty-five thousand dollars, in cash or its equivalent in cash, as she shall elect; the same to be paid to her as of the date of my death.” The fourth, fifth and sixth clauses are specific legacies and-relate to sums to -be expended for a monument and for the care of burial lots in two cemeteries.
Martha L. Wight died testate on January 17, 1926. By the third clause of her will she gave all the rest, residue and remainder of her estate to her heirs at law to be ascertained as of the date of her death. At the time of her decease about thirty-seven acres of the homestead estate, including the ten acres upon which stood the house and stable, remained unsold. The question is: Who is entitled to the reversion in the real estate after the termination of the life estate by the death of Mrs. Wight?
The gift of a life estate is not inconsistent with nor repugnant to a remainder to a life tenant of the same property. Rotch v. Rotch, 173 Mass. 125, 130. Cushman v. Arnold, 185 Mass. 165, 169. Hedge v. State Street Trust Co. 251 Mass. 410, 413. Crowell v. Chapman, 257 Mass. 492, 498. Under the third clause of the will the gift is sufficient to include a devise of one half the entire residue of the estate, real as well as personal; and the word “give” in this clause is adequate for this purpose without the use of the word “devise.” The circumstance that the latter word was omitted does not show an intention to limit the gift to personal property. Houghton v. Hapgood, 13 Pick. 154. Laing v. Barbour, 119 Mass 523. Dann v. Canfield, 197 Mass. 591, 595.
This construction is not inconsistent with the seventh clause. One half of the residue of the real estate was undisposed of by the "third clause, but was devised under the seventh clause to trustees for the purposes therein declared. There is nothing in the seventh clause to indicate that the testator intended to modify the absolute gift of one half the real estate which he had previously disposed of by gift to his wife in the third-clause. In other words, “rest, residue and remainder,” referred to in the seventh clause, meant that part of the estate, real and personal, which remained
The decree of the Probate Court is reversed and a decree is to be entered instructing the petitioners that the heirs at law of Martha L. Wight are entitled to one half the real estate of Joseph F. Wight under the third clause of his will. Costs as between solicitor and client may be awarded out of the assets of the estate in the discretion of the Probate Court.
Ordered accordingly.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- George Hoague & another, trustees v. Arthur P. Stanley & others
- Status
- Published