Bankers Trust Company v. Allen

135 N.W.2d 607, 257 Iowa 938, 1965 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 645
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 8, 1965
Docket51661
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 135 N.W.2d 607 (Bankers Trust Company v. Allen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bankers Trust Company v. Allen, 135 N.W.2d 607, 257 Iowa 938, 1965 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 645 (iowa 1965).

Opinion

Garfield, C. J.

— Bankers Trust Company of Des Moines, as ■ executor of the estate of Alden B. Howland, deceased, brought this action for declaratory judgment construing his will and determining the rights of his widow, Bertha, and numerous heirs in the estate. Following trial to the court as in equity Bertha has appealed and the heirs have cross-appealed from the decree.

Decedent, a prominent Des Moines lawyer, died July 24, 1962.- His will, made October 3, 1961, was admitted to probate six weeks later. Item I of the will provides for payment of debts, *942 taxes and expenses of last illness and burial. Items II, III and IV follow:

“Item II’. If she survives me, I give, devise and bequeath the residence property occupied by me to my wife, Bertha How-land. I also give and bequeath to her all household furniture, equipment and furnishings of the home I reside in at the time of my death. In addition I give and bequeath to her one-half of m3 personal property including money on deposit, stocks and securities.
“Item HI. If she survives me, I give and bequeath to my sister, Mary A. Howland, of Des Moines, Iowa, the remaining one-half of my personal property, plus the undivided one-half interest in the residence property located at 1712 Clark Street, Des Moines, Iowa, which I own as an heir of my deceased mother.
“Item IY. The provision made in Item II hereof for my wife if she survives me, shall be in lieu of all other claims she may be entitled to make and also in lieu of any widow’s allowance pending administration of my estate.”

Item Y nominates plaintiff as executor to serve without bond.

The sister Mary, named in Item III, supra, predeceased testator on February 20, 1962. He acquired under her will her undivided half interest in the Clark Street property. He previously owned the remaining interest therein, as Item III states. The trial court held the property bequeathed to Mary under Item III passed to decedent’s heirs as intestate property. Bertha, the widow, contends all such property except the half interest in the Clark Street property acqriired from Mary passed to her (Bertha) and the will should he so construed. She concedes this half interest in the Clark Street residence descended as intestate property.

The argument for Bertha is that it was testator’s intent that if either of the two beneficiaries named in the will predeceased him, the property bequeathed to her would pass to the survivor and the will should be construed to so provide.

Those who claim as testator’s heirs argue and the trial court held the will contains no residuary bequest of the property bequeathed to Mary, the will is unambiguous and testator’s intent *943 must be ascertained from the instrument-itself, the bequest' to Mary lapsed and — there being no residuary clause- — descended as intestate -property. ■ We agree with this holding. ' ■' '

I. ■ Reference should be- made to the extrinsic 'evidence offered by Bertha to support her argument and that • offered by defendants-to meet it. . •

- ■ Decedent and Bertha were, married in-1939 but did.not live together until 1943; They had no children. Decedent was devoted to his'widowed mother and unmarried sister Mary, with whom-he lived until 1943. Bertha was not invited to their home on Clark Street nor was- she welcome there. None of decedent’s heirs lived in Des Moines during the last 50 years; most of them lived in the Bast. Decedent’s father died when he was ten and his mother, with decedent, Mary and a daughter who died in 1937," moved into'the home of the mother’s sister and her husband in-Des Moines and they lived together several years. They were grandparents of defendant "Ward S. Alien,- Jr. who claims half the intestate property as decedent’s only heir by reason of descent from decedent’s maternal grandparents.

Bertha testified none of decedent’s" relatives' visited their home nor did-he visit them, she saw no correspondence between her husband and his relatives and he told her he "had no relatives. She also said she worked for the streetcar company fifteen and one-half years after she was married and never-gave decedent less than $100 a month.

The record leaves no doubt decedent -had many relatives of whom-he was fully aware-and with whom-he corresponded'occasionally (as .at -Christmas) and visited at times, especially the Allens and'the Howlands. - The latter :claim one fourth the intestate property as heirs by reason of.'descent from two of the four paternal great-grandparents of decedent. -One defendant-heir was a student at a college "near Des Moines in 1936, decedent loaned her $200, most of - which she repaid and the rest of which he forgave. The sister Mary’s will wás prepared, under decedent’s direction and contained small bequests to War'd S. Allen, Jr. and-three defendant-Ho-wland heirs:

Decedent’s" heirs who claim the remaining- one fourth the intestate property by reason of descent from the- common an *944 cestors of bis paternal grandmother (the Pierce, Chase and Cleveland heirs) are numerous and have not all been ascertained. It is doubtless true decedent did not know who all of them were.

II. Where the language of a will is ambiguous or of doubtful meaning resort may be had to extrinsic evidence as an aid in determining its meaning. However, where the language used is plain and unambiguous its meaning must be determined from the language used without resort to extrinsic circumstances. The testator’s intention must be determined from what he said, not from what it may be supposed he intended to say or should have said. The question is not what testator meant to say but what he meant by what he did say.

See in support of the views just stated In re Estate of McCulloch, 243 Iowa 449, 457, 458, 52 N.W.2d 67, 72, and citations; Henkel v. Auchstetter, 240 Iowa 1367, 1373-1378, 39 N.W.2d 650, 653, 654; In re Estate of Eason, 238 Iowa 98, 103, 26 N.W. 2d 103, 106; In re Will of Hagan, 234 Iowa 1001, 1007, 14 N.W. 2d 638, 641, 152 A. L. R. 1296, 1301; 95 C. J. S., Wills, sections 591, 592. See also In re Estate of Barnes, 256 Iowa 1043, 1049, 128 N.W.2d 188, 191, 130 N.W.2d 227; In re Estate of Artz, 254 Iowa 1064, 1069, 1070, 120 N.W.2d 418, 422, and citations.

Nor is extrinsic evidence admissible to vary, contradict or add to the terms of a will or to show an intention different from that disclosed by its language. Evidence of testator’s intention as an independent fact, divorced from the words of the will, is clearly inadmissible. Courts will not, from oral testimony, make a will testator perhaps intended to, but in fact did not, make. In re Estate of Roberts, 240 Iowa 160, 164, 35 N.W. 2d 756, 758, and citations; 95.C. J. S., Wills, section 634. See also In re Estate of Miller, 243 Iowa 920, 929, 930, 54 N.W.2d 433, 438, 439, 36 A. L. R.2d 139.

We find no ambiguity in the will.

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135 N.W.2d 607, 257 Iowa 938, 1965 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bankers-trust-company-v-allen-iowa-1965.