Appleton v. Fuller

16 N.Y.S. 353, 41 N.Y. St. Rep. 386, 61 Hun 626, 1891 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 443
New York Supreme Court·Decided November 13, 1891·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Van Brunt, P. J.

This action was prosecuted to construe the will of W. J. A. Fuller, and for an accounting by his executors. The testator died on the 11th of March, 1889, leaving him surviving the defendants. C. Fuller and the respondents Kate Fuller, Fanny M. Man, Josephine O. Krotei, Alice 0. F. Wright, Sadie S. Fuller, and Julia A. Fuller, his only daughters, and the appellants William M. and Bayard C. Fuller, his only sons. The respondents E. A. Man and Margaret H. Man are infants, and are the only children of said Fanny M. Man. The respondent E. P. Krotei is an infant and only child of the said Josephine 0. Krotei. The appellant Meta Fuller is the only child of said William M. Fuller. The other daughters and the other son of the testator have no children or descendants. He left a will, dated November 28, 1888, and a codicil thereto, dated February 8, 1889, which were admitted to probate by the surrogate in April, 1889, and letters testamentary issued thereon to the plaintiffs the executors. After various bequests, by the ninth clause of the will, the testator gave all the rest, residue, and remainder of his estate to his executors in trust for the purposes thereinafter set forth. He then directs the payment of all taxes, assessments, and other lawful charges upon his estate, and that his real estate should be kept in good preservation and repair, and that it should be kept fully insured before the net income should be paid to any person under the will. He then directed his executors, after the payment of his just debts, to divide his property into as many portions as he should leave children living, not including his daughter Kate. This direction would have required the division of the estate into seven shares. By the next clause of his will he directs his executors, during the life of his daughter Kate, to pay her $2,500 a year, which sum he had provided for in a previous clause of the will, and had directed should be deducted from the net income of the respective shares given and devised in trust. He then directed his executors, during the life of his wife, to pay her $3,000 a year in the same manner. He next directed his executors to pay in monthly payments to each of his remaining children who should survive him, respectively, during the life of each, an equal part or share of the remaining net income of each of said respective portions or shares. At the death of any such child, such child’s portion to go as a remainder in fee to his or her heirs. In February, 1889, the testator published a codicil to bis said will in the following language: “I hereby revoke and cancel such portions of my said will, bearing date November 28,1888, as provided for my sons, William M. Fuller and Bayard C. Fuller, as beneficiaries of the trust therein created, and I hereby declare and will that the said trust shall be created and remain for the benefit of the remaining beneficiaries therein named, (my wife and daughters,) and the said trust-estate shall be divided into as many shares [355] as I shall leave daughters me surviving. In all other respects said trust provisions are hereby ratified and confirmed. And in lieu of the said provisions in favor of my said two sons I hereby will and bequeath to each of them, William M. Fuller and Bayard C. Fuller, nine thousand dollars in bonds of the Jersey City News Company, which bonds, or their equivalent, if they shall have been sold before the time of my death, shall be taken out of the said trust-estate created by my said will.” His sons have each received the $9,000 bequeathed to them. The court below construed the will as providing that the trustees should divide the estate into five shares, being one for each daughter other than Kate, and that on the death of each daughter her share was to go to her child or children. It is claimed upon the part of the appellant Meta Fuller and by the appellants William M. Fuller and Bayard C. Fuller that upon the death of her parent William M. Fuller she will become entitled to the same share as she would have taken under the will if there had been no codicil.

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Appleton v. Fuller, 16 N.Y.S. 353, 41 N.Y. St. Rep. 386, 61 Hun 626, 1891 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 443 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1891).

16 N.Y.S. 353 (Appleton v. Fuller) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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