Cliett v. Cliett

1 Posey 407, 1880 Tex. LEXIS 200
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJune 14, 1880
DocketCase No. 3435
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1 Posey 407 (Cliett v. Cliett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cliett v. Cliett, 1 Posey 407, 1880 Tex. LEXIS 200 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1880).

Opinion

Walker, P. J.—

The leading question in this case involves

the construction of the will, and the codicil. First as to the provisions of the will itself, viewed distinctly from the codicil, which appears, from its recitals, to have been written upon or else attached to the same paper containing the will. The devise to the plaintiffs of equal shares to the brothers and sisters of the testator’s first marriage is framed in careful language which clearly manifests the testator’s intentions. Not only does the first clause in the will, which purports to express his will concerning the disposition of the “ Procter ” tract of land, explicitly attach a condition to the devise which he makes to the beneficiaries, but, seemingly, with a cautious consideration directed against the possibility of misconstruction, in the subsequent clauses or paragraphs of the will, he continues to qualify each expression with reference to that particular devise, with terms which in effect are repetitions of the condition ; that condition is., “if they shall move to it” (the Procter tract of land); the other expressions referred to being such as these, viz.: “ The residue of the tract I will and bequeath to the children that may he here as aforesaid; ” and again, “ after paying himself for the trouble, to divide the surplus, if any, among his own brothers and sisters that may he here as aforesaid.” Negative and auxiliary evidence on the face of the will, in aid of this interpretation, is furnished by the use of terms contained in the will quite dissimilar in their application to all the other bequests and, devises to his- children; both those which relate to bequests to the children of the second marriage, and those in which the children of both marriages jointly and equally [414]*414share. In all such, the language used is direct and plain, descriptive of the classes referred to; and the bequests and devises to them, contain no qualifications nor conditions whatever requiring that they or any of them shall remove to the land that is given to them, or that the bequest shall be limited by any act whatever to be done by the legatees.

“ Among the forms of expression which imply a condition in a grant, the writers give the following: ‘on condition/ ‘ provided always/ ‘ if it shall so happen/ ‘ or so that he the grantee pay, etc., within a specified time/ and grants made upon any of these terms vest a conditional estate in the grantee.” 2 Wash. Real Prop., p. 3. The term used in the will, “if they shall move to it,” is of import precisely equivalent to the forms expressing condition in the grant above quoted, and is not less unequivocal in its meaning than they are. It is a devise of the land “ on condition,” or “ provided that” the devisees shall move upon the land. To “ move ” upon land has a well understood signification; it is the act of actual domiciliation upon it; “move”— “to change residence; to remove, as from one house, town or state to another.” Worcester’s Die. “Words, moreover, often create a condition in a will which would not if made in a deed, as where in a will an intention is expressed in devising the land, that the devisee should or should not do certain things in respect to it, it may be construed as creating a conditional estate in him.” 2 Wash. Real Prop., p. 3. But here, the expressions used are not simply such as indicate a mere intention by the devisor that the devisees should move upon the land, which of itself might allow the devise to be construed as creating a conditional estate in it, but they are clear and emphatic terms, which of their own force constitute the devise a conditional one. The condition appears on its face to be a condition precedent; it fixes the limit or period within which the devisees are required to perform the act which shall entitle them to the land devised, viz.: “ If they shall move to it by the 1st of January, 1870, or before my death.” If they never should move to the land the devise would never take effect; it is nota devise of the land with conditions [415]*415attached of acts to be done, which may accompany or follow the vesting of the estate, or which may as well be done after as before the vesting of the estate, but the estate is made to vest if tlie act of moving to the land shall be performed within the limits of designated periods. See 2 Wash. Real Prop., p. 5, sec. 4. “ It seems to be agreed that' in regard to all conditions, whether in a deed or will, or in simple contracts, where the condition is in the nature of a consideration for the concession, its performance will be regarded as intended to precede the vesting of any right, and so a condition precedent.” 2 Redf. on Wills, p. 283. In this case it may be supposed that the testator was influenced by a desire to gather his children from abroad near and around him previous to his death, and that the concession was influenced by it, and perhaps by a further desire that his children after his death should live near each other on the same tract of land, or else that he was unwilling that any part of the land should be occupied by others than his children, or such of them as would be willing to occupy it as a home, which design would be frustated, probably, by making an unconditional devise to them all jointly, unless the motive for retaining the property entire was encouraged by requiring its owners to actually domiciliate themselves upon it. Whatever may have been the inducements to the conclusion of the testator, the terms which he imposed seemed to have been, at all events, “ in the nature of a consideration for the concession.”

The general intent of the will controls the mere form of conditions, and it is well settled that “ where the words are' in the form of‘a condition precedent, but the intentions of a testator, as collected from every part of the will, clearly indicated a different purpose, the latter will prevail.” 2 Redf., p. 299, sec. 36. In this case the form of the condition expressed in the will, and the general purpose and intent of the whole, will harmonize in illustrating the same intentions on the part of the testator, and to chai’acterize the devise to the plaintiffs as an estate upon condition precedent. The conditions contained in the will are not, as alleged in the [416]*416petition, contrary to public policy and good morals. It is urged by appellants, in argument, that the conditions were captious, and void as to Mrs. Mosely and J^rs. Haralson, because, being married women, they were incapable of assenting to them, in the matter of selecting their domicile. The testator, if he does not infringe the rules of law, has a right to say with-Staberius, when he imposed an unpalatable condition in his will, sine ego prave, sen rede, hoc volui.” 4 Kent, note (a), 535. It is no objection to carrying out the obvious intention of the testator, if it be not illegal, or against good morals, that it is strange, or unnatural, or absurd. 1 Redf. on. Wills, 434, 435. And, besides, “conditions requiring an illegal act, as in restraint of marriage, are void; but if they are conditions precedent, the estate will not vest, it being of the essence of the bequest that it shall not become operative until or unless the condition is performed or takes effect. And the same rule applies as to the vesting of an estate, made dependent .upon the performance of a condition precedent, where the condition is or becomes impossible. The estate which depends upon a condition precedent cannot vest where the condition fails for any cause.” 2 Redf. on Wills, p. 284, sec. 8. “ A condition is not regarded as impossible because it is beyond the power of the devisee'to perform it.

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Bluebook (online)
1 Posey 407, 1880 Tex. LEXIS 200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cliett-v-cliett-texcommnapp-1880.