Gardner v. Vanlandingham

69 S.W.2d 947, 334 Mo. 1054, 1934 Mo. LEXIS 511
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 14, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 69 S.W.2d 947 (Gardner v. Vanlandingham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gardner v. Vanlandingham, 69 S.W.2d 947, 334 Mo. 1054, 1934 Mo. LEXIS 511 (Mo. 1934).

Opinions

This is an action for the construction of a will and for partition of the residuary estate disposed of thereby. The case was tried by the court, without a jury, upon an agreed statement of facts. John A. Vanlandingham (hereinafter called the testator) made the will in question on November 22, 1919. By this will the testator left to his wife absolutely $2500 in cash and his residence in Plattsburg. The remainder of his estate he disposed of as follows:

"FOURTH. I direct that my wife, Lovie Vanlandingham, shall have the use and benefit of all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate real, personal and mixed, wherever situated during the period of her natural life and at her death I direct that residue of my estate be divided equally among my heirs. In the event of the death of any of my heirs, then the share they would have received if living shall descend to their issue."

The testator was seventy years of age at the time he made this will. He and his wife had then been married more than forty years and had no children. The will was prepared by his banker, who was not a lawyer. The testator then had two living brothers and two living sisters; all were married, but only two had children. His brother James had four living children and his sister Belle had two living children. The testator also had a nephew, Frank Rixey, married at that time but without children who was the only child of the testator's deceased sister Lucy. The testator died April 19, 1922. None of his relatives above-named had died, nor had any other children, between the time the will was made and his death. The testator's widow, who was also the executrix of his will, died January 4, 1931.

The residuary estate of the testator consisted of notes, stocks and bonds, of the total value of $28,305.93, all of which was delivered to the testator's widow. She used the income therefrom during the remainder of her life and all of it was in her possession when she died. Defendant Joe T. Doherty was appointed executor of her estate. He had looked after the collection of the income from this property during her lifetime and as her executor he retained possession of it. Prior to the death of the widow, the testator's brother, Frank T. Vanlandingham, died, February 1, 1927, intestate, leaving no children. His widow, Mary W. Vanlandingham, was made a defendant but, by her answer, she contended for the same construction of the will as did plaintiff, and claimed a one-tenth interest in the *Page 1060 property (one-half of his one-fifth part). She was administratrix of the estate of her husband, and had made final settlement during the year 1928. Thereafter, also prior to the death of the testator's widow, his nephew Frank Rixey died, September 28, 1930. He left no children, but disposed of his estate by will. Plaintiff is his administratrix, with the will annexed, and, as such, makes claim for a total of nine-fortieths of the whole fund, one-fifth under the will of the testator and one-fortieth from the share of Frank T. Vanlandingham (one-fourth of one-half of his one-fifth share).

Prior to this suit, defendants James M. Vanlandingham, Belle Slaughter and Ida Barnes obtained an order of the probate court, without notice to plaintiff or Mary W. Vanlandingham, requiring Joe T. Doherty, as executor of the estate of the testator's widow, to deliver to them the entire estate disposed of by the fourth paragraph of the testator's will. Pursuant to this order, Doherty did deliver to them all of the notes, stocks and bonds composing the estate, and these three defendants have ever since had possession thereof and collected and used the income therefrom. Plaintiffs' petition stated that this property was in danger of being lost or dissipated and asked that a receiver be appointed to take possession thereof and collect the income therefrom until the proper distribution thereof could be determined. This controversy, therefore, is whether or not these three defendants are entitled to this whole fund of $28,305.93; how this fund is to be managed, collected and distributed if they are not entitled thereto; and whether $9,199.41 of the principal thereof (about one-third of it) and an equal portion of the income collected therefrom, claimed by these three defendants, belongs to plaintiff and defendant Mary W. Vanlandingham.

The court found that the three defendants James M. Vanlandingham, Belle Slaughter and Ida Barnes were the owners of the whole fund of $28,305.93, and that neither plaintiff, defendant Mary W. Vanlandingham, nor defendant Joe T. Doherty had any interest whatever in said fund. Judgment was entered dismissing plaintiffs' petition and denying the relief asked for in the answer of Mary W. Vanlandingham. Both plaintiff and Mary W. Vanlandingham, hereinafter referred to as appellants, appealed therefrom, and by stipulation their appeals have been consolidated.

Appellants contend that by the first sentence of the fourth paragraph of the will the remainder, subject to the life estate of the testator's widow, vested at the testator's death in the five persons (brothers, sisters and nephew) who survived him and composed the class designated by his will to ultimately take his property; that the second sentence did not cut down this vested estate; but that it either referred to the death of these persons before the testator or stated a contingency, upon the occurrence of which the absolute interest given each might be devested, namely: death with issue before *Page 1061 the death of the life tenant. Respondents contend that remainder created by the will "was contingent and not vested; that it did not become vested until the death of testator's widow; that at that time it vested in only those of testator's heirs who were then alive;" and that this indicated an intention that all of testator's property should go only to those of his own blood.

[1] While the primary rule of construction of wills is to determine the "true intent and meaning of the testator" (Sec. 567, R.S. 1929), this intention must be determined by what the will actually says and not by what we might imagine the testator intended to say or would have said if he had decided to further explain his intention. [Evans v. Rankin, 329 Mo. 411,44 S.W.2d 644; Pommer v. Catholic Church, 316 Mo. 1016, 292 S.W. 417; Wooley v. Hays, 285 Mo. 566, 226 S.W. 842; Cox v. Jones,229 Mo. 53, 129 S.W. 495; 16 A.L.R. 1, note.] Almost every will presents some difference in language and circumstances, so that, to some extent, each must be considered apart from any other case in order to ascertain its meaning in the light of the facts as they were known and considered by the testator. However, unless the intention is so clear that there is no room for construction, certain auxiliary rules of construction are looked to because they have been found by experience to more often reach correct results and because they are based upon policies which have been formulated in the interest of the public welfare.

[2] One such rule is that words are usually to be understood in their ordinary sense and primary meaning. Therefore, words, with a well-known technical meaning, should be construed according to their technical meaning unless a contrary meaning clearly appears from the context of the will. [Drake v. Crane, 127 Mo. 85, 29 S.W. 990; Cross v. Hoch, 149 Mo. 325, 50 S.W.

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Bluebook (online)
69 S.W.2d 947, 334 Mo. 1054, 1934 Mo. LEXIS 511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gardner-v-vanlandingham-mo-1934.