Harned's Estate
Harned's Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Charity Harned died on December 31,1887, leaving to survive a husband and seven children. Her will, with
An examination of the will as a whole clearly indicates an intention to dispose of the entire estate amongst those who are the objects of the testatrix’s bounty, and it was only in case of the happening of an apparently unexpected contingency, — which will be noted hereafter,— that any portion was to pass under the intestate laws. Further, it appears that only three of the children are to share in the property after the father’s death. As to the remaining four, it is expressly declared, in paragraph 5, that three are omitted from consideration in the distribution, because “they either are now or have been, heretofore, sufficiently provided for otherwise.” A fourth is excluded, by the terms of the codicil, by reason of unsatisfactory conduct, and the provision for him in the will is transferred to his sister Annie.
Of the three daughters, — Mary Jane, Merian and Annie, named as beneficiaries, — the first was unmarried, and the subject of particular solicitude on the part of her mother. As to her share, a spendthrift trust was created, and the entire fund was kept intact during her life, though she received but one-third of the income. To the other daughters named, an estate was given during the lifetime of Mary Jane, with provision for survivorship between them, not only of income and principal of the two-thirds of the estate, but of the remaining one-third, when Mary Jane should die, if still unmarried and without issue.
No real difficulty is encountered up to this point. In paragraph 4 appears the direction, “in default of such living and surviving issue of the body of my said daughter Mary Jane, and in the event of my said daughter Merian, and my said [daughter Annie] both dying intestate and without children them surviving......then I do give, devise and bequeath all the property real and personal......unto my testatrix’s right heirs, their
Annie, one of the daughters, died in 1904, intestate and without issue. Merian died in 1911, likewise without husband or children, but leaving a will, by which her interest was given to Mary Jane for life, — she lived until 1920, — and, upon her death, the principal was made payable to the present appellees. The suggestion is now made that the estate by survivorship fell, and the entire corpus is distributable under the intestate laws, by reason of the provisions of the fourth paragraph, above cited. This argument fails to give due weight to the words used, which indicate not only that it must appear no children were living when death occurred, but also that the survivor should die intestate: Merian left a will, however, as already noted. The Superior Court satisfactorily answered this contention, when it passed upon the clause in question, in determining the proper distribution of income accrued prior to Mary Jane’s death. It then said: “Now, although the daughter Merian did not survive her sister Jane and did not leave any issue her surviving, she did die testate. What significance is to be attached to the provision of the will that it was only in case she should die intestate as well as childless that the devise over to the next of kin was to become operative? We can discover no other meaning than that there was at least an implied power of appointment given to this favored daughter and that her testamentary disposition of her share in her mother’s estate would provide substitutionaries for herself, within the contemplation of the testatrix, who should stand in her stead and succeed to the rights that would have been hers had she survived the cestui que vie or left issue surviving herself”: Harned’s Est., 54 Pa. Superior Ct. 47, 53.
In the present case, Helen A. White, individually, claimed a share as heir at law of Charity Harned, and also as administratrix of her deceased sister. The court below refused to so award, but distributed the fund to the heirs claiming under the will of Merian. As already indicated, we are of the opinion that the proper conclusion was reached. The two appeals taken were argued together, and are now jointly disposed of.
The assignments of error are overruled in both cases, and the decree of distribution is affirmed at the costs of appellants.
Reference
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- Wills — -Construction—Life estate — Remainders—Survivorship— Estate per autre vie. 1. Where a testatrix gives her estate in trust to her husband for life and upon his death one-third thereof to one daughter for her life and the remaining two-thirds to two other daughters for the life of the first, she may also create a survivorship as between such two daughters. 2. If testatrix directs that, upon the first daughter dying without issue her surviving, and in the event of the other two daughters dying intestate and without children them surviving, the estate shall go to the testatrix’s heirs at law, the gift to the heirs does not take effect if it appears that both of the two daughters died in the lifetime of their sister, one intestate and without issue, but the other testate and without issue. 3. In such case each of the two daughters had an implied power of appointment by will, and one having died leaving a will by which she gave her interest to her sister, who, however, predeceased her, for life, and then over to nieces, such nieces, after the death of the first sister, are entitled to take, on final distribution, as against the heirs of testatrix. Bes adjudicata — Construction of will by Superior Court — Income — Principal—Adoption of construction of will by Supreme Court. 4. While a decision of the Superior Court on a question of the distribution of income under a will, may not be res adjudicata on a question of distributing the corpus of the estate, yet such construction, if applicable and proper, will be adopted by the Supreme Court in distributing the principal.