Floyd v. Caro

9 Daly 535
CourtNew York Court of Common Pleas
DecidedMarch 7, 1881
StatusPublished

This text of 9 Daly 535 (Floyd v. Caro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Floyd v. Caro, 9 Daly 535 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1881).

Opinion

Charles P. Daly, Chief Justice.

This judgment should be affirmed. The reasons why it should be affirmed, are set forth so concisely in the points submitted by the counsel for the respondent, that to a great extent it would suffice to repeat what‘he has said and refer to the authorities he cites. But he has not considered all the objections relied upon by the appellant, and as they will have to be passed upon, I will state my conclusions, generally, on the appeal, with the cases that warrant them, as follows:

1. The testator’s language in the introductory part of the will, that he was desirous of making a suitable and proper disposition of such worldly estate as he might leave ; the existence, with the specific devises, of a general residuary clause embracing all the rest, residue and remainder of his estate of every nature and description, not therein and thereby,—that is, by the will,—otherwise disposed of; and the provision in this residuary clause, that the whole income of the residue of his estate, which included the property in question, was to be paid to his wife during her life, and upon her death, the residuary estate was to go to such of his relations by blood or marriage, or the relations of Iris wife, as she might, by her will or other instrument, appoint, in such shares or portions, and on such conditions and limitations, as she might direct; show that his intention was to dispose of the whole of his property by that instrument (Youngs v. Youngs, 45 N. Y. 257, and Youngs’ will, in the' printed case, submitted on the argument).

2. The special devises, after the death of his wife, of the property in Greenwich street to Laura F. Carow, and of that in Pearl street, to Sarah E. Saunderson, were to each respectively during their lives, with a contingent' remainder to their issue, each being, at the time of the making of the will; unmarried ; and as the contingency never happened, each having died without issue, and there being no further specific devise of the property, it came under the general residuary clause in the will, which provided for the disposition, as his wife should [545]*545appoint, of property not otherwise disposed of under the will, which was the case in respect to this property. Both devisees, at the malting of the will, were unmarried. There was the possibility that they might not marry, or might not have issue, and. it cannot be assumed that this was an event not contemplated by the testator. A residuary devise of real or personal estate, carries with it all reversionary or contingent interests, which in events contemplated by the testator are not otherwise disposed of (Bowers v. Smith, 10 Paige, 202; Craig v. Craig, 3 Barb. Ch. 101). The event contemplated by the testator here, was that the devisees would have issue, who would take the property absolutely, which was'necessarily coupled with the knowledge, on his part, that it was an event that might not occur; and as it did not, the property comes nnder the residuary clause of the will and is disposed of by it (Doe v. Weatherby, 11 East, 322; Doe v. Scott, 13 M. & S. 300; Doe v. Frederick, 1 B. & Ad. 186; Edgerton v. Massey, 3 Com. B. N. S. 338; Youngs v. Youngs, supra; Craig v. Craig, 3 Barb. Ch. 76; 1 Jarman on Wills, 2d Am. ed. 519).

3. The provision in the sixth, or residuary clause, directing the trustees, on the death of the testator, to transfer to those whom his wife should appoint, the personal property therein provided for, and all and singular my real estate not herein and hereby otherwise disposed of,” does not exclude this property from the residuary clause, for it had not been absolutely disposed of by the will—the absolute or final disposition of it being dependent upon a contingency that might not and did not happen, the devisees having died before the wife, at whose death, they were, if then living, to have a life estate in it.

4. This case does not come within the rule applied in Van Kleeck v. Dutch Church of New York (6 Paige, 108 ; 20 Wend. 600), that a residuary devise does not include real estate, which wás, in terms, absolutely devised to others who could not take from incapacity,—as in the case of a corporation incapable of taking by devise,—but descends to the heirs; the reason of the rule being that it appearing by the devise of the property in the will that the testator presumed that he had,' by his will, disposed of the entire fee absolutely, leaving nothing remaining [546]*546for future disposition, no intention could be inferred that it was, in the event of a failure of the devise, to come under the residuary clause (per Grover, J., in Youngs v. Youngs, supra, p. 259), but on the contrary that he did not intend the residuary devise to extend to it (1 Jarman on Wills, 590, 3 Am. ed.). It was conceded, in Van Kleeck v. Reformed Dutch Church, by the chancellor (6 Paige, 108), that the general residuary clause embraces reversionary and contingent interests not fully and completely covered by other parts of the will, and the opinions upon the affirmance of the case in the court of errors show (per Grover, J., in Youngs v. Youngs, supra), that if the disposition made had been upon a contingency that might have left an interest undisposed of, such contingent interest would have passed under the residuary clause, which is the case here. If,” says Jabman, “ an estate in fee were devised to a person on the happening of a certain event, it is obvious that the alternative fee depending on the converse event is imdisposed of, and therefore, is an interest on which the residuary clause will operate ” (1 Jarman on Wills, 519, 2d Am. ed.).

5. The appellant concedes the law to be, that where there is a distinct limited or contingent devise, couched in such terms that the testator could not but have had in his mind the possibility of its failure, and there is a sufficient residuary clause, the residuary devisee would take the reversion or remainder. The devise here, of this particular real estate, was to each devisee, during her life, and on her death to her issue, then her surviving, and the issue of such of them as may then have departed this life, the issue of any such deceased child taking per stirpes, and not per capita, in fee simple absolute and as the devisees, at the time of the making of the will, had no issue, and were unmarried, which was known to the testator, who designates them by their maiden names, one of them living in his family, and the other the niece of his wife, the testator must have had iu his mind, the possibility of the failure of issue, their having issue being one of those uncertain future events, of which any ordinary mind would take cognizance; and as there was, with this contingent special devise, a general residuary clause, the two are entirely consistent with each other; [547]*547the intention of the testator being, as the language of the will shows, to dispose of the whole of his estate.

6.

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Related

Kerr v. . Dougherty
79 N.Y. 327 (New York Court of Appeals, 1880)
Fairbanks v. Camp
20 Wend. 600 (New York Supreme Court, 1839)
Burns v. Morse
6 Paige Ch. 108 (New York Court of Chancery, 1836)
Bowers v. Smith
10 Paige Ch. 193 (New York Court of Chancery, 1843)
Craig v. Craig
3 Barb. Ch. 76 (New York Court of Chancery, 1848)

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Bluebook (online)
9 Daly 535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/floyd-v-caro-nyctcompl-1881.