Boggs v. Boggs

60 A. 1114, 69 N.J. Eq. 497, 3 Robb. 497, 1905 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 87
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedJune 6, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 60 A. 1114 (Boggs v. Boggs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boggs v. Boggs, 60 A. 1114, 69 N.J. Eq. 497, 3 Robb. 497, 1905 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 87 (N.J. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

MAGIE, CliAlSr OELLOR.

The complainant in this case is the substituted administrator with the will annexed of William J. Boggs, who was a resident of the State of Few York, and died there in 1812, leaving a last will and testament, which was probated in that state and an exemplified copy of which has been duly filed in this state. The complainant represents that there is real estate of decedent in New Jersey which must now be sold under the direction of the fourth clause of said will, and which he, as administrator with the will annexed (appointed because of the death of the two executors named in the fifth clause thereof), must sell, and the proceeds arising from which sale he must distribute. How that distribution is to be made he represents to be questioned.

On his part, he insists that under the terms of the will applied to the facts, he is entitled to the whole of such proceeds. [500]*500The parties defendant to the bill are those who represent children of the testator other - than complainant, who is the only surviving child. The bill charges that they contest the claim of the complainant to the whole of the proceeds of the sale, and claim the right to some portion thereof.

The substituted administrator is, under this will and the statutes conferring power upon such administrators, empowered to sell said lands. P. L. 1883 p. 395; 2 Gen. Stat. 1429; Varick v. Smith, 67 N. J. Eq. 1.

One of the defendants appears and has answered the bill admitting the facts therein stated, but contesting the claim of the complainant, and submitting -to the jurisdiction of the court the question of the persons to whom the testator’s estate is to be distributed. Some of the defendants are infants, and are brought into the cause by a guardian ad litem. Testimony as to the relationship of the complainant and defendants to the testator, and the death of some of testator’s children and widow, and the times of their respective deaths, has been taken.

The complainant, wbm is to distribute the fund arising from the sale of the testator’s real estate now remaining unsold, seeks the direction of the court, and thereby properly raises a question involving the construction of the will of his testator. Hoagland v. Cooper, 65 N. J. Eq. (20 Dick.) 407.

It appears by the proofs that the widow of the deceased, to whom the use and income of all testator’s real estate was given for her natural life, has died. Thereupon by the express provisions of the fourth clause of the will the unsold real estate must be sold. To whom are the proceeds of sale to be paid bjr the administrator who is to carry- out and perform this will? The language in which the testator expresses his intent in this respect is somewhat involved. By the fourth clause he directs that, at the death of his wife, all his real estate then remaining unsold shall be sold and the “proceeds thereof shared equally by my surviving children, share and share alike.”

If this clause stood alone and unexplained by other clauses of the will, it seems to admit of no doubt that the testator intended that those who should share the proceeds should be his children who survived his widow. Such was the construction [501]*501given to a similar clause in Seddel v. Wills, 20 N. J. Law (Spenc.) 223. See, also, Brooks v. Kip, 54 N. J. Eq. (9 Dick.) 462; S. C., 55 N. J. Eq. (10 Dick.) 590. But, however clearly the testator’s intent is disclosed by the clause when read by itself, yet if, from other clauses, a different intent is disclosed, not inconsistent with its language, a construction must be given which will carry out his intent.

When the whole will is read, I think it plainly indicates that the testator’s intent was to distribute the fund disposed of by the fourth clause among the children that survived him, and not those merely that survived the life beneficiary. Thus in the third clause, after giving power to his widow, who was also his executrix, to sell real estate and invest the proceeds in bonds and mortgages, and declaring that such investment was to be for the benefit of all his surviving children on and after the decease of his wife, he authorized his wife to “release any portion of said proceeds of such bonds and mortgages for the use and benefit of any one or more of my children/’ and then provides that any such portion shall be debited to and deducted from the portion of such child. Then, by the sixth clause, the testator provides that at the death of either of his children the surviving children shall inherit the deceased child’s share, subject to the provision of a life use to his wife.

Erom these clauses road together it is clear, in my judgment, that the testator intended by the provisions of the fourth clause that, subject to the use by his wife for life, his estate thereby disposed of should go to and be vested in his children who survived him, but to corns into possession only at the death of his wife, except as to such portions of the proceeds of any sale of real estate made by her which she may have advanced to any child.

if the construction of the fourth clause of this will had led to the conclusion that the testator intended to benefit only such of his children as survived his wife, it is obvious that the complainant’s claim would be made out, because the proofs show that he, at the death of his mother, was the sole surviving child. But although the true construction of that clause, when road [502]*502with the rest of the will, is otherwise, yet complainant’s claim raises a question thereunder which is the question mainly argued.

This claim is made under the provisions of the sixth clause of the will, which provides that, at the decease of any of the children of testator “the surviving children shall inherit the deceased child or children’s share.” The claim is that this clause limits and restricts the interest which the children of testator acquired by the will, and that their respective shares, which were, as before stated, vested in them at testator’s death subject to the life interest of the widow, Avere rendered subject to be devested by tire death of any of them during the life of the widow, in which event the share of that child is, in the language of the will, “inherited” by the surviving children.

In my judgment there is no doubt as to the intent of the testator in this clause. He thereby provided that, upon the death of any of his children during the life of his widow, the share which would have been payable to him at her death (including so much only as had not been advanced and debited to him under the provision of the third clause to that effect) should go to testator’s then surviving children.

While this is perfectly obvious with respect to the share of the child who first died, a question, however, arises as to the effect of this clause upon the shares of tire children who subsequently died during the lifetime of the widow. That is the question presented by the claim on the part of the defendants. When the second child died the share which he took originally under this clause undoubtedly passed to the children who then survived. But the child who secondly died had before acquired a fractional part of the share of the child wlm first died.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bank of Delaware v. Goldey
176 A.2d 199 (Court of Chancery of Delaware, 1961)
Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Robert
171 A.2d 348 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1961)
In Re Central Home Trust Co.
160 A.2d 186 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1960)
Fidelity Union Trust Co. v. Cavanagh
160 A.2d 308 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1960)
Leahy v. Murray
158 N.E.2d 30 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1959)
Brown v. Neeld
97 A.2d 718 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1953)
Skinner v. Boyd
130 A. 22 (New Jersey Court of Chancery, 1925)
Robertson v. . Andrews
95 S.E. 892 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
60 A. 1114, 69 N.J. Eq. 497, 3 Robb. 497, 1905 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boggs-v-boggs-njch-1905.