Campbell v. McCue

33 Ohio C.C. Dec. 269, 21 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 67, 1907 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 483
Cuyahoga Circuit Court·Decided January 28, 1907·Published

Opinion

MARVIN, J.

The plaintiff represents that she is the owner of an undivided one-sixth part of certain real estate, described in the petition, and that the several defendants are owners of the remaining five-sixths parts of the same. The defendant, Charles [270] Thomas Manahan, by his cross-petition claims to be the owner of one-sixth of the same premises, and both of these parties pray for a partition of the premises.

The fact is, that the rights of all the parties depend upon the true construction of the will of Charles M. Campbell, deceased. He died testate in 1872, leaving his widow, Ann Campbell, and three children, to wit, Henry M. Campbell, Elizabeth Campbell and Jane Cecelia McCue, and a grandson, the defendant, Charles Thomas Manahan, who was the only child of a deceased daughter of the testator. The son of the testator, Henry M. Campbell, .is not now living, and the plaintiff is his only heir at law, and is entitled, if entitled to anything, to whatever rights her father would be entitled to, were he now living. The said Charles M. Campbell by his will disposed of a considerable estate, including real estate in the city of New York. By the second item of his will he provided among other things the following:

“My beloved wife Ann shall have all my New York real estate for her own use and benefit so long as her natural life shall last.”

The third item of his will reads:

“It is my will that my executors, hereinafter named, at the death of my said wife, Ann, sell all my New York real estate * * # and divide the proceeds of the sale in the manner following, viz: one-fourth part to my son Henry M. Campbell and one-fourth part to my daughter Elizabeth Campbell and one-fourth part to my daughter Jane Cecelia McCue and one-fourth part to my grandson Charles Thomas Manahan, with the restrictions and conditions hereinafter mentioned.”

The testator’s widow died in 1881 and the son, Henry M., died in 1888. The daughter, Elizabeth, died testate and without issue in 1903. After the death of Ann, the executors sold the New York real estate and delivered to Henry M. his one-fourth part of the avails of such sale, and invested for Charles Thomas Manahan in some property (not that described in the petition), une-fourth part of the estate which was to be held for him, and the remaining one-half of the avails of such sale was invested in the real estate described in the petition, for the defendant, Jane Cecelia McCue, and her sister, now deceased, Elizabeth [271] Campbell, to tbe extent that each had an interest in the avails of this sale. The deed to this property was made to John D. Thompson, trustee, he being the only executor who qualified.

In 1895, Thompson resigned as such executor and the defendant, Thomas W. McCue, was appointed to succeed to the trust, and Thompson, as trustee, conveyed to the said Thomas W. McCue, as trustee, the real estate in question. By the terms of the will of the said Elizabeth Campbell, her interest in this real estate was devised to the defendant, Jane Cecelia McCue, for life and at her death to her children. The real question in issue here is whether Elizabeth Campbell had any such interest in this real estate as that she could dispose of it by will, and as has already been said, this depends upon the construction of the will of Chas. M. Campbell.

As bearing upon the question here under consideration attention is called to the fifth item of said last named will which reads:

• “It is my will that if any of my heirs and legatees herein mentioned shall die before distribution of my estate and without children, their shares revert back to my estate and be divided equally amongst the remaining legatees.”

Contention is made here that the word “distribution” as. used in this item, refers to the time when the estate shall be finally settled, and each legatee and devisee shall receive his or her share of the estate. We do not understand the word to be used in this sense, but rather in the sense of referring to the time when the avails of the sale of the .New York real estate should be divided, as provided in the sixth item of the will. This item reads in part, as follows:

“It is my will that my executors herein named hold in trust or invest the bequests herein made to my two daughters Elizabeth and Jane Cecelia and my grandson Charles Thomas Manahan, as follows: They may invest each of said legatees’ share of my estate in any real estate that they may think advantageous and prudent for the use and benefit of each one respectively of said legatees to have and to use the same during their natural life and at their death said real.estate to pass to their children in such a manner as my said legatees may will or as the law may direct as the case may be. ” 1

[272] It will be noticed that it was not contemplated by the testator that joint investment for these three parties was necessarily intended, but they were authorized to invest the share of each in such wise as they should think most advantageous and prudent for the use of each. As a matter of fact they did not invest for the three jointly, but invested in the real estate here in dispute for the benefit of Jane Cecelia and Elizabeth only. If this construction of the word “distribution” as used in this item is correct, nothing more need be said as to this item, and we come then to consider the rights of the legatees and devisees under the' third and sixth items. But for the concluding clause in the third clause there can be no doubt that each of the parties named in that item would have an absolute estate in the property therein named, but this concluding clause “with restrictions and conditions, hereinafter mentioned,” draws our attention to the sixth item to ascertain what those restrictions and conditions are, and we find that the property in which the investment was to be made, they were to have and use during their natural life and at their death said real estate was to pass to their children in such manner as the law may direct, as the case may be.

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Campbell v. McCue, 33 Ohio C.C. Dec. 269, 21 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 67, 1907 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 483 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1907).

33 Ohio C.C. Dec. 269 (Campbell v. McCue) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.