Everhard v. Brown

62 N.E.2d 901, 75 Ohio App. 451, 31 Ohio Op. 268, 1945 Ohio App. LEXIS 613
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 5, 1945
Docket195 and 196
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 62 N.E.2d 901 (Everhard v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Everhard v. Brown, 62 N.E.2d 901, 75 Ohio App. 451, 31 Ohio Op. 268, 1945 Ohio App. LEXIS 613 (Ohio Ct. App. 1945).

Opinions

Doyle, J.

Nathan S. Everhard died in 1919 and left a will disposing of an estate of the value of more than a million dollars. He was survived by his wife, Ella M. Everhard, until her death in 1942. His father and mother, and all of his brothers and sisters, who numbered thirteen, died prior to the date of the execution of the will (1918), as also had his wife’s father and mother and all of her brothers and sisters, five in number. Children had not been born to either spouse.

By the will, the whole estate, after the payment of debts, certain specific legacies and directions for noncontroversial matters, is given to trustees in trust (1) “To collect the dividends and income therefrom and * * * to pay over all or any part of the residue of said dividends and income remaining to * * * (his) said wife, Ella M. Everhard, at'such time or times as she may or shall desire or request during her natural life ’ ’; (2) at the decease of his wife, and within six months thereafter, to pay specific money legacies aggregating over $49,000; and (3) after compensation to the said trustees, to “proceed to divide and distribute the residue of my estate among the nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces of myself, and the nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces of my wife, Ella M. Everhard, share and share alike, grandnephews and grandnieces receiving the same share as the nephews and nieces.”

Case No. 195 is in this court de novo, following an appeal taken from the Probate Court of Medina county, and this opinion, except as noted in the last paragraph hereof, will deal only with that case. The trus *454 tees, here as they did in the lower court, seek a construction and interpretation of the instrument which prescribes their duties, and pray for a determination of those who should receive a share or shares of the residuary estate, and for other general instructions.

We encounter in the evidence 128 persons who claim as residuary legatees who survived the testator; 97 residuary legatees who survived the testator’s widow; 9 nephews and nieces who predeceased the testator; adopted children of testator’s nephew; and other facts which will be introduced in their proper places.

The complexity of our problem and its entangled character is well stated by one of the groups of counsel in the following exposition:

“I. Construction of will — time for determining legacies. Are the residuary legatees (a) the 97 who survived the testator’s widow on May 12, 1942, or (b) the 128 who survived testator on April 2,1919?
“II. Sec. 10581, Ohio General Code — lapse or ‘other relative’ statute. If the residuary legatees are the 128 living on April 2, 1919 [the time of the death of the testator], do the 21 (issue of the 9 nephews and nieces of testator who predeceased him) receive the 9 shares their parents would have received, in addition to the 21 shares given them as grandnephews and grandnieces of the testator? If so, 107 take 107 shares, 21 take 21 shares, and said 21 also take 9 additional shares, a total of 137 shares.
“III. Are the issue of grandnieces of testator’s widow * * * each entitled to a share?
“IV. Are the adopted children of Gordon Glayde Everhard, a nephew of testator, each entitled to a share ?
“V. Should the income of $29,264.16, and accrued bond interest of $3,340.22, at May 12,1942, the date of the widow’s death, be paid to her estate?”

*455 It will serve no useful purpose to attempt to enlarge upon the first general principle applicable to the construction and interpretation of wills. The cases are legion which pronounce that ‘‘ The first and great rule in the exposition of wills (to which all other rules must bend), is that the intention of the testator expressed in his will shall prevail, provided it be consistent with the rules of law.” John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, in Smith v. Bell, 6 Peters 68, at p. 74, 8 L. Ed., 322, at p. 325. And, see, 41 Ohio Jurisprudence, "Wills, Section 467 et seq., and Ohio cases cited. So ruled, we proceed to analysis.

I. “When did this estate vest?” query counsel, and “What did the testator mean when he said, ‘my trustees * * * shall proceed to divide and distribute the residue of my estate among the nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces of my wife * * *, share and share alike, grandnephews and grandnieces receiving the same share as the nephews and nieces’?”

“1. Ordinarily, a will speaks as of the death of the testator.
‘ ‘ 2. The law favors the vesting of estates at the earliest possible moment, and a remainder after a life estate vests in the remainderman at the death of the testator, in the absence of a clearly expressed intention to postpone the vesting to some future time.” Ohio Natl. Bank of Columbus, Trustee, v. Boone, 139 Ohio St., 361, 40 N. E. (2d), 149, 144 A. L. R., 1150.

As we examine the will, we find the wife as the chief object of solicitude. She was to receive their modest homestead, $25,000 by direct bequest, and “all or any part” of the tremendous income from a huge estate, for the span of her life.

The next primary purpose of the trust was to distribute, equally and impartially, after the death of his wife, the vast bulk of his estate to their respective nearest relatives, and by his chosen phrases he treated *456 them as members of but a .single class. He knew that both he and his wife were the last of their respective brothers and sisters, and that they had many relatives of consanguineous and affinitive kinship, who were the direct issue of their deceased brothers and sisters. These were the people whom he had selected for his munificence.

There is no language in the instrument which indicates an intention to postpone the vesting of the bulk of testator’s estate until after the death of his wife. In fact, the will directs that his bounty shall be awarded at the time of cm inevitable fixture event (the death of his wife), and not upon the occurrence of some contingency as that word is used to- mean an event which is dependent for effect on something that may or may not occur. There was, at the time the will was drawn and at the time of the death of the testator, members of the class in being who would have had the right to possession immediately upon the, determination of the life estate. There was no uncertainty of the right to actual enjoyment on the part of the members of the class, nor was payment deferred for reasons personal to the legatees.

“* * * though a gift arises wholly out of directions to pay or distribute in futuro, vet if such payment or distribution is not deferred for reasons personal to the legatee, but merely because the testator desired to appropriate the subject matter of the legacy to the use and benefit of another for and during the life of such other, the vesting of the gift in remainder will not be postponed but will vest at once, the right of enjoyment only being deferred.” Knight v. Pottgieser, 176 Ill., 368, at p.

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Bluebook (online)
62 N.E.2d 901, 75 Ohio App. 451, 31 Ohio Op. 268, 1945 Ohio App. LEXIS 613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/everhard-v-brown-ohioctapp-1945.