Ammon's Estate
Ammon's Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
These appeals are from decrees of the Orphans’ Court of Allegheny County, dismissing exceptions to the distribution made under a first and partial account of the executor of the estate of Edith Darlington Ammon, and involve the same questions.
Mrs. Ammon died September 9, 1919, leaving a will wherein she gave to her husband, Samuel A. Ammon, “The income from [her] personal estate, with certain exceptions noted later, also the income from such real estate [therein] named and not left to him in fee simple.” After making a number of devises and bequests testatrix further directed that “from [her]-income funds sufficient to produce $100 a month, net, are to be set aside, and this income is to be paid to Edith Darlington Ghyssels, or in case of her death or second marriage to- her son George Denniston Ghyssels.” Following the foregoing was a clause providing that “when the payment is made for that part of [her] estate taken by the Pennsylvania Eailroad Company, the income paid to Edith Darlington Ghyssels is to be increased to the sum of $2500 a year.” No part of this latter fund was before the court below for distribution and it is mentioned here merely because of the bearing it may have in construing other pertinent portions of the will. Testatrix finally provided that “upon the death of [her] husband all [her] estate real and personal shall be divided into three parts, one part shall
The various quoted provisions of the will contain no words from which it can be inferred reasonably that the enjoyment of the income should be limited to the lifetime of decedent’s husband. The direction that funds sufficient to produce the stipulated monthly income “be set aside” created an express trust of that amount and separated it from the remainder of the income, thus constituting the detached sum one of the exceptions referred to by testatrix in the clause of the will giving the income from her estate to her husband. Although in the latter clause testatrix directed that on the death of her husband “all of [her] estate real and personal shall be divided into three parts” the word “all” was evidently intended to include merely the property remaining after the bequests previously given had been satisfied. Otherwise the language is inconsistent with the numerous specific devises and bequests in fee. The fact that a general distribution of the residuary estate was intended at the death of her husband can, consequently, have no effect on the trust fund set aside for Mrs. Ghyssels.
The decrees of the court below aré affirmed at the costs of appellants.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Wills — Husband’s election to tahe against will — Acceleration of residuary bequests — Legacy—Life estate. 1. The rule that a husband’s election to tahe against his wife’s will, has the effect of Accelerating residuary bequests, does not apply to a case where the will of the wife gives to her husband the income from her personal estate “with certain exceptions, noted later,” and gives other devises and bequests, including a sum to be set aside, the income therefrom to be paid to a cousin, and in ease of the death or second marriage of such cousin to the latter’s son, with a further direction that, upon the death of testatrix’s husband, “all” the estate real and personal should be divided, and go to certain persons named. 2. In such case, the gift to the cousin is a gift for life or until she marries, and is not affected by the election of the husband to take against the will, in the absence of a direction in the will that the trust for the cousin should be limited to the lifetime of decedent’s husband. 3. The word “all” as used in the will, was evidently intended to include merely the property remaining after the bequests, previously given, had been satisfied.