Detzel v. Nieberding

219 N.E.2d 327, 7 Ohio Misc. 262, 36 Ohio Op. 2d 358, 1966 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 281
CourtHamilton County Probate Court
DecidedJune 16, 1966
DocketNo. 5496
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 219 N.E.2d 327 (Detzel v. Nieberding) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hamilton County Probate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Detzel v. Nieberding, 219 N.E.2d 327, 7 Ohio Misc. 262, 36 Ohio Op. 2d 358, 1966 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 281 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1966).

Opinion

Davies, J.

The evidence in this case discloses that Wilhelmina C. Guenther died testate on July 5, 1965. After making several specific bequests, she provided that the residue of her estate be converted into cash, that certain contingent monetary bequests be made to three brothers, a sister, Mary Detzel, a sister-in-law, a niece and a nephew, with a stipulation that the legatee “be living at the time of” the testatrix’s death, and that the remainder of the residue be distributed in designated fractions to three named charitable institutions. The monetary be[263]*263quest to Mary Detzel reads as follows: ‘ ‘ To my beloved sister, Mary Detzel, provided she be living at the time of my death, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00).” Mary’s daughter and sole issue, Helen Detzel, survived her aunt, the testatrix. Mary Detzel predeceased her sister, Wilhelmina.

Helen Detzel has instituted the present action for a declaratory judgment to declare her right as the sole issue of Mary Detzel to take the $5,000.00 bequest made by the testratrix to Mary Detzel under the provisions of Section 2107.52, Revised Code, commonly known as the antilapse statute. The court has been asked to determine, under the provisions of this section, if Helen Detzel will take the $5,000.00 bequest devised to her deceased mother, Mary Detzel; if the bequest will lapse because “a different disposition” of the devise has been made by the testatrix in stipulating in her will that $5,000.00 be given to Mary Detzel “provided she be living at the time of my death”; or if this section has no application to this case.

We have not found any Ohio cases involving the applicability of the Ohio antilapse statute to the exact facts of this case. We have found a number of eases in other jurisdictions in which courts have held that devises or bequests containing provisions similar to the “Detzel” bequest do lapse despite the existence of antilapse statutes in those jurisdictions.

The court, in the case of In re Schaertl’s Will, 138 N. Y. S. 2d 814, 207 Misc. 406, held that under a residuary clause of a will devising remainder of testatrix’s estate to her brother and his heirs if he outlived her, the bequest to the brother, who predeceased the testatrix, lapsed and the residuary estate passed as intestate property because the words “if he outlives me” give evidence of a “contrary intent.” In In re Conay’s Estate, 121 N. Y. S. 2d 486, the court held that the antilapse statute did not apply in a case in which a testator left 25% of his interest in a business to his brother “if he is alive to enjoy it but if he dies before I do then let it pass as part of my residuary estate” because “the section is inapplicable where the testamentary instrument gives evidence of a contrary intent.”

In the case of In re Estate of Parker, 181 N. Y. S. 2d 711, 15 Misc. 2d 162, the court considered the effect of an antilapse statute in a case in which the testator left one-fourth of the residue of his estate to his sister “if she survives me” but if she [264]*264does not survive me “I give said shares to her husband.” The husband and his wife both predeceased the testator. The court held that under these circumstances children of the sister would not take under the antilapse section because the testator had £ ‘ otherwise provided. ’ ’

In Kunkel v. Kunkel, 267 Pa. 163, 110 A. 73, B. S. Kunkel died testate on October 1, 1911, leaving no lineal descendants, providing in his will that “I give to each of my brothers, Wm. F. Kunkel and Charles H. Kunkel, if living at the time of my decease, the sum of five thousand dollars. ’ ’ Wm. F. Kunkel died March 5, 1910, leaving an only child, Wm. B. Kunkel, surviving him. The Pennsylvania law provided that any devise or legacy in favor of a brother or sister, when a testator leaves no lineal descendants, ‘ ‘ shall not be deemed or held to lapse ’ ’ by reason of the decease of the devisee or legatee in the lifetime of the testator, if the former leaves issue surviving the latter, “ saving always to every testator the right to direct otherwise.” The court held that the testator did “direct otherwise” in providing that, in order to take, “the legatees must be living at the time of his decease; in other words, that the legacies, respectively, shall lapse if either of the brothers predecease him.” The court (p. 167) said that “This is the plain meaning of the will, leaving no possible room for legal construction to the contrary.” The court concluded that the legacy to Wm. F. Kunkel lapsed.

As a summation of the cases which hold that antilapse statutes do not apply to devises or legacies when words of sur-vivorship are used in a will, we quote the following statement found in 92 A. L. R. 857, Section IXa: “Where the testator uses words of survivorship, indicating an intention that the legatee shall take the gift only if he outlives the testator, it is clear that the statute against lapses has no application. In such a case the condition attached to the gift fails immediately upon the death of the legatee, and there is nothing upon which the statute can operate. This result is so obvious as not to require citation of authority.”

Analyses of the aforementioned cases show that the courts categorically concluded that antilapse statutes do not apply to devises made to relatives when the indicated words of survivor-ship were used in connection with the devises, because in such events the testators have expressed intentions to nullify the [265]*265provisions of the statutes. "We, franky, do not agree with the conclusions of the courts that the words of survivorship used by testators in the aforementioned cases leave “no possible room for legal construction to the contrary” or are “so obvious as not to require citation of authority.”

We must keep in mind that, in the construction of a will, the sole purpose of the court should he to ascertain and carry out the intention of the testator. The words contained in a will, if technical, must he taken in their technical sense, and if not technical, in their ordinary sense, unless it appears from the context that they were used hy the testator in some secondary sense. All parts of the will must he construed together, and effect, if possible, given to every word contained in it. Findley v. City of Conneaut, 145 Ohio St. 48; Townsend’s Exrs. v. Townsend, 25 Ohio St. 477; Carter v. Reddish, 32 Ohio St. 1; Charch v. Charch, Exr., 57 Ohio St. 561; Moon, Admr., v. Stewart, 87 Ohio St. 349; Addams & Hosford Ohio Probate Practice & Procedure, 5th Ed., p. 384, par. 4.

In the construction of statutes, the purpose in every instance is to ascertain and give effect to the legislative intent. Carter v. City of Youngstown, 146 Ohio St. 203. The primary purpose of the judiciary in the interpretation or construction of statutes is to give effect to the intention of the Legislature, as gathered from the provisions enacted, by the application of well settled rules of interpretation. State, ex rel. Shaker Heights Public Library, v. Main, 83 Ohio App. 415. The court must look to the statute itself to determine legislative intent, and if such intent is cearly expressed therein, the statute may not he restricted, constricted, qualified, narrowed, enlarged, or abridged. Wachendorf v. Shaver, 149 Ohio St. 231.

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Bluebook (online)
219 N.E.2d 327, 7 Ohio Misc. 262, 36 Ohio Op. 2d 358, 1966 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/detzel-v-nieberding-ohprobcthamilto-1966.