Clements v. Moore

1951 OK 309, 238 P.2d 297, 205 Okla. 387, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 676
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 13, 1951
Docket34285
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1951 OK 309 (Clements v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clements v. Moore, 1951 OK 309, 238 P.2d 297, 205 Okla. 387, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 676 (Okla. 1951).

Opinion

BINGAMAN, J.

The question presented for determination by this appeal is whether, under the terms of the last will and testament of Ida A. Clements, deceased, her checking and savings accounts in the banks and certain grain belonging to her and stored in an elevator in the town of Hennessey, passed to her daughter Crystal B. Clements Moore, or became a part of the residue of her estate to be divided equally among her five children.

Ida A. Clements died on June 22, 1948, leaving surviving her five children, the four plaintiffs, Andrew Clements, Perry Clements, Roy Clements, and Martha Holmes, and the defendant, Crystal B. Clements Moore. By the terms of her last will, after devising to each of the above-named children certain parcels of real estate, she devised to the defendant, Crystal B. Clements Moore, all of her household goods, furniture, furnishings and equipment, particularly describing some of the household goods “and all such personal property of every kind or nature located in or about my said home, or any other home or place of abode that I may acquire, which is owned by me at the time of my death.” She then provided that all of the rest, residue and remainder of her property and estate, “not disposed of hereinabove, I do hereby give, will, devise and bequeath to my five now living children”, naming the plaintiffs and defendant.

This will was executed November 9, 1933. Thereafter, on October 26, 1942, she executed a codicil to said will in which she amended and amplified paragraph numbered VI of the will, by which she devised her household goods and personal property to her daughter, Crystal.

The pertinent parts of said codicil read as follows:

“in addition to the real estate and personal property devised and bequeathed to my daughter, Crystal, I do provide that the general bequest there contained to her of ‘all personal property of every kind or nature located in or about my said home’, or any home of mine, shall expressly include any automobile, any money, currency or coin, or travelers checks, or defense or war bonds or stamps, which belong to me, or in which I have any interest, and which are in or sometimes about my home, about my person, or in my custody or control, or in her custody or control, and I do give and bequeath all of the same to her. I do further provide that any personal property, which is issued in the name of or to a designated payee or owner, or is a subject of registered ownership, for example, checks, bonds, drafts, stocks, automobile, etc., in which I have, or it may be claimed I have, any interest or ownership by reason of having furnished a part, or all, of the original purchase price, or consideration therefor, but which is registered or issued to or in her name, or in our names jointly, or in my name, shall belong to and is here bequeathed to her, to be her sole separate property, and the same shall not be distributed under the residuary clause, paragraph numbered ‘VIT of said Will.”

When the estate was ready for distribution in the county court, plaintiff Perry Clements, who was one of the executors, petitioned the court to construe the will and to decree the moneys in the bank accounts, certain United States Government bonds, and the wheat, evidenced by warehouse receipts showing its storage, to be a part of the residue of the estate to be distributed to the five living children of the deceased, share and share alike. The county court distributed the bonds, the currency found in the possession of the decedent at the time of her death, and a portion of the wheat evidenced by warehouse receipts in the possession of the decedent at the time of her death, to Crystal B. Clements Moore, and distributed the bank deposits and the proceeds from the sale of certain wheat, evidenced by two certificates which had not been delivered to dece *389 dent, to the five devisees under the residuary clause in the will. On appeal the district court gave the savings accounts and the wheat, evidenced by the two warehouse receipts, to Crystal B. Clements Moore. It held that the checking accounts constituted the residue of the estate to be distributed to all five children, in equal shares. Plaintiffs appeal from this judgment in so far as it gave the wheat and savings accounts to the defendant, and defendant cross-appeals from that portion of the judgment which placed the checking accounts in the residue of the estate.

Plaintiffs in this court contend that the language of the will and codicil, as above quoted, conclusively establish that it was the intent of the testator to give to her daughter, Crystal, only money, bonds and other personal property in the home, and that the bequest to Crystal did not include any bank accounts or the wheat in the Hennessey elevator, which had been deposited there by tenants of the deceased who had retained the warehouse receipts issued therefor, and had not delivered the same to deceased at the time of her death.

Defendant contends that the term “money”, as used in the codicil, covered and included all bank deposits of the deceased and that the warehouse receipts issued for the wheat, although it had not been delivered to her, fell within the classification of checks, bonds, drafts, stocks, etc., referred to in the codicil.

We have many times held that the cardinal rule for the construction of wills is to ascertain the intent of the testator and give effect thereto, and that all rules are subordinated to the intent of the testator where that has been ascertained. Cunningham v. Fidelity National Bank of Oklahoma City, 186 Okla. 429, 98 P. 2d 57; Cobb v. Newman, 201 Okla. 318, 205 P. 2d 858. And our statutes on interpretations of wills, 84 O.S. 1941 §§155-158, provide that all parts of a will are to be construed in relation to each other and that the words therein used are to be taken in their ordinary sense, unless the clear intention to use them in another sense can be collected. When the will and codicil are construed according to these rules it appears that the contention of the plaintiffs must prevail.

It is true, as pointed out by the defendant, that the term “money”, when used in a will, in its strict sense may include bank deposits. 69 C. J. p. 393, §1434; 57 Am. Jur. p. 897, §1354; Page on Wills (Perm. Ed.) vol. 3, p. 59, §974. But, in all these works it is further stated that the word “money” may have any meaning which the testamentary intent, as manifested by the will read in the light of proper evidence, imparts to it, or, as stated in Am. Jur. supra, that no general rules of any real value are deducible from the decisions, the solution of each case being dependent upon the particular language of the will involved and the facts and circumstances shown. Examination of the authorities discloses that in many instances “money” was held to include not only bank deposits but stocks, bonds and even real estate, in order to prevent intestacy as to a portion of the decedent’s estate, and in all cases the meaning given it was based upon its use in relation to the other provisions of the will.

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Bluebook (online)
1951 OK 309, 238 P.2d 297, 205 Okla. 387, 1951 Okla. LEXIS 676, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clements-v-moore-okla-1951.