Dial v. Ridgewood Tuberculosis Sanatorium

124 S.E.2d 598, 240 S.C. 64, 1962 S.C. LEXIS 71
CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina
DecidedMarch 15, 1962
Docket17888
StatusPublished

This text of 124 S.E.2d 598 (Dial v. Ridgewood Tuberculosis Sanatorium) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dial v. Ridgewood Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 124 S.E.2d 598, 240 S.C. 64, 1962 S.C. LEXIS 71 (S.C. 1962).

Opinion

Legge, Justice.

Mrs. Rosamond K. Seibels died on May 27, 1960, leaving a will which has been admitted to probate in Richland County. By it she disposed of property belonging to her personally, appraised at $294,000.00, and also, by exercise of a power of appointment under the will of her late husband, of the property of a trust estate created by his will and of which she had been the beneficiary during her life. That property has been appraised at $207,000.00.

Item IX of Mrs. Seibels’ will reads as follows:

“I direct that all federal estate taxes and all state inheritance taxes or estate taxes assessed against my estate or upon the beneficiaries of any devise or bequest shall be paid by my executors from my residuary estate and such payment shall not be charged against the respective share, legacy or devise of any beneficiary under this my will; and then after the payment of all bequests, legacies, debts, expenses, commissions and taxes, all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate I give, devise and bequeath unto the Ridge-wood Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Columbia, South Carolina.”

The executors and executrix, alleging that under the provision of this item they should pay from the residuary estate all estate and inheritance taxes, including those assessed in respect of the property over which the testatrix exercised her said power of appointment or upon the beneficiaries of any devise or bequest of such property, brought this action for the purpose of obtaining an adjudication to that effect. The residuary beneficiary, joined as a defendant, took the view that the taxes in question should be equitably apportioned among the residuary and the respective beneficiaries of the appointed property. This appeal is from a circuit court order upholding that view.

[68]*68Mrs. Seibels and her husband, Mr. Edwin G. Seibels, together owned the majority of the Class “A” or voting stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co., (formerly incorporated under the name of Edwin G. Seibels, Manager). By his will dated March 19, 1953, he bequeathed one-half of his stock in that company, one-fourth of his stock in Greenfield Construction Co., and five thousand ($5,000.00) dollars, to three trustees, of whom his wife was one, directed that they pay the income to her during her life; and provided, in the following language, for her disposition of the trust property by her will:

“I hereby give to my said wife, Rosamond K. Seibels, the power to appoint by her last will and testament the disposition free of this trust of the entire corpus or any part thereof remaining in the trust at the date of her death; and from and after her death I give, devise and bequeath such corpus of the trust to such persons, corporations or estates, including my said wife’s estate, and .in such proportions and amounts and upon such provisions as my said wife may, by her last will and testament, designate and appoint.”

Mrs. Seibels executed her will in New York, N. Y., on October 31, 1958. The record here does not disclose whether or not it had been prepared by her counsel in Columbia, S. C.; but it has been stipulated that her Columbia counsel wrote to her, at her New York address, under date October 1, 1958, and in that letter, after estimating the amount of her estate, said:' “This includes the part of Mr. Seibels’ estate over which you have a power of appointment and will be taxed as a part of your estate.”

Following is a brief synopsis of Mrs. Seibels’ will and its two codicils.

Items I and II are formal, the first relating to payment of debts and the second providing that anyone contesting the will should be barred of benefits under it.

In Item III, using the words “give, devise and bequeath”, the testatrix makes twelve cash bequests, totaling $51,500-.00.

[69]*69In Item IV, after recital of the trust under her husband’s will arid her power to appoint by will the disposition of the trust property, she declares: “I now hereby specifically execute such power of appointment.” And she proceeds, in seven sub-paragraphs, to “give, devise and bequeath” the trust property as follows:

1. Unto J. Smith Harrison, thirty-one (31) shares of Class “A” stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co.

2. Unto J. M. Bigham and his wife Sara Ruff Bigham, thirty-one (31) shares of Class “A” stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co.

3. Unto George L. Dial, thirty-one (31) shares of Class “A” stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co., in trust for the use of Fred Sample for his life and upon his death to George R. P. Walker, Jr., outright.

4. Unto George R. P. Walker, Jr., son of Mary Ross Seibels Walker Cosby, fifty (50) shares of Class “A” stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co.

5. Unto John Page Seibels, son of Calder W. Seibels, “twenty-seven and one-half (27j4) shares of my stock in Greenfield Construction Company”.

6. Unto St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, “fifty (50) shares of my stock in Greenfield Construction Company”.

7. Unto the Faculty Endowment Fund of the University of South Carolina, five thousand ($5,000.00) dollars.

In Item V she “gives, devises and bequeaths” fifteen (15) shares of Class “A” stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co., owned by her personally, to J. Smith Harrison.

Item VI directs the sale of her residence and disposition of the proceeds as part of her residuary estate.

Item VII authorizes the, executors to continue for one year the employment of her household employees.

Item VIII gives the executors discretionary power to sell any property not specifically bequeathed or devised.

Item IX, providing for payment of taxes and disposition of the residuary estate, has been already set out in full.

[70]*70Item X refers to a memorandum of instructions as to disposition of certain items of personal property.

Item XI appoints George L. Dial and J. M. Bigham, Sr., executors, and Mrs. Alice C. Seibels, executrix.

The first codicil, dated April 29, 1959:

1. Revoked two cash bequests under Item III of the will;

2. Revoked sub-paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Item IV of the will, which had disposed of ninety-three (93) shares of Class “A” stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co., being a portion of the trust estate under her husband’s will, and instead “gave, devised and bequeathed” twenty-one and one-half (21)4) shares to George R. P. Walker, Jr., and seventy-one (71)4) shares to John Page Seibels;

3. Revoked sub-paragraph 5 of Item IV of the will, which had disposed of twenty-seven and one-half (27)4) shares of “my” stock in Greenfield Construction Company, being a portion of the trust estate under her husband’s will, and substituted in its stead: “I give, devise and bequeath unto Mary Page Seibels, of Columbia, South Carolina, twenty-seven and one-half (27)4) shares of my stock in Greenfield Construction Company”;

4.' Revoked Item V of the will, which had disposed of fifteen (15) shares of Class “A” stock of Seibels, Bruce & Co. owned by her personally, and instead “gave, devised and bequeathed” the same to Harriett Moore Walker; and

5. “Gave, devised and bequeathed” unto Fred Sample five thousand ($5,000.00) dollars.

The second codicil, dated May 2, 1960:

1.

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Bluebook (online)
124 S.E.2d 598, 240 S.C. 64, 1962 S.C. LEXIS 71, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dial-v-ridgewood-tuberculosis-sanatorium-sc-1962.