McCauley's Estate
McCauley's Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The appeal in this case raises the single question whether under the will to be considered the gift to the children of testator’s niece, Anna Jane White, constituted a vested or contingent remainder. The Orphans’ Court held it to be contingent and made distribution accordingly. The appellant insists this was error. The portion of the will that gives rise fo the controversy is found in the latter part of the sixth section, wherein testator makes disposition of a third part of his residuary
The testator died in 1897; the widow, the life tenant, died in 1915; Mrs. Anna J. White, the sister to whom, if living, was given the entire one-third, died in November, 1899, leaving to survive her two children, Elizabeth W. Weaver and Rebecca N. Love, the latter of whom, intermarried with Robert J. Love, died August 24, 1903, intestate, without issue, leaving to survive her a husband, Robert J. Love, to whom letters of administration on the estate of his deceased wife were granted. On'this state of facts the learned auditing judge held that Mrs. Love’s right to take was contingent on her surviving the life tenant, and that having predeceased the life tenant, the latter having survived until 1915, she took nothing-under the will. In this conclusion we cannot concur. It is in effect importing into the gift to the children, without any warrant whatever, a condition which the testator attached to and made inseparable from the gift to the mother, namely, that she was to take at the termination of the life estate if she was then living. What reason can there be for inferring that it was testator’s intent to subject this alternative gift over to the children to a like condition, that is, survivorship at the expira
Where a legacy is made payable at a future time, cer
Where a bequest is to a class, the vesting is not postponed because of uncertainty as to who, if any, may be the constituents of the class at the time fixed for the enjoyment of it.
If there is a present right to a future possession, though that right may be defeated by some future event, contingent or certain, there is nevertheless a vested estate.
These rules are applicable to and must govern this case. They have been applied -in cases almost without number, and while in some of the cases there may be apparent departure from one or more, certainly in none of those cited by the appellee have any of them been disregarded or their authority questioned in any way. The cases which have been supposed at variance, or so distinguished on their facts as to be outside the operation of these rules, including all those cases relied upon by the appellee here, are all reviewed and discussed at length in the recent case of Neel’s Est., 252 Pa. 394, and in Rau’s Est., 254 Pa. 464, and we feel that nothing can profitably be added to what is said in those cases.
Our conclusion is that under the will of John McCauley the gift to the children of testator’s niece, payable at the latter’s death, was vested in such of her children as were living at the death of the testator. If this be correct, it must follow that the share of Mrs. Rebecca N. Love, one of said children, was not divested by reason of her death before that of her mother, and that distribution of her interest or share should have tyeen made to her legal representative, this appellant. The judgment of the court below is accordingly reversed and distribution is ordered to be made in accordance with the view here expressed,
Reference
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- Wills — Tested and contingent remainders — Construction—Intention. 1. Where a legacy is made payable at a future time, certain to arrive, and not subject to condition precedent, it is vested, where there is a person in esse at the time of the testator’s death capable of taking when the time of payment arrives, although his interest be liable.to be defeated altogether by his own death. 2. When a bequest is to a class, the vesting is not postponed because of an uncertainty as to who, if any, may be the constituents of the class at the time fixed for the enjoyment of it. If there is a present right to a future possession, though that right may be defeated by some future event, contingent or Certain, there is nevertheless a vested estate. 3. Testator bequeathed a life interest in his estate to his widow and directed that upon her death the entire balance should be converted into money and divided into three equal parts. He bequeathed one of such third parts to “my sister......if living or her children, if she be then deceased, in equal parts or shares, and to the issue of such of them as may then be deceased, such issue taking, however, such part or share as his, her, or their parent or parents would have taken if living.” The sister died during the lifetime of the widow, leaving two children, one of whom predeceased the life tenant. Upon the life tenant’s death, the administrator of such deceased child claimed her share of the estate, alleging that such child took a vested interest under the testator’s will. The Orphans’ Court decided that such child’s right to take was contingent upon her surviving the life tenant, and that having predeceased the life tenant, she took nothing under the will. Held, that such child took a vested interest, and the decree was reversed.