Glover v. Condell

35 L.R.A. 360, 163 Ill. 566
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 35 L.R.A. 360 (Glover v. Condell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glover v. Condell, 35 L.R.A. 360, 163 Ill. 566 (Ill. 1896).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice Magruder

delivered the opinion of the court:

There are now in the hands of the appellant, Sudduth, as trustee, notes and securities, amounting to §14,000.00, together with interest on said sum since October 30,1892, which represent two-thirds of the sixth part devised to Albert B. Condell, deceased, under the will of his father, Thomas Condell. The question in this case is as to the ownership of the trust fund thus held by the trustee. The appellee, Moses B. Condell, claims that, since the death of his brother, Albert B. Condell, he is entitled to a proportionate share in the fund in question as one of the four surviving children of the testator. The appellants, Mary J. Glover and Emily Montgomery, claim that they are entitled to the whole of said fund, and that neither the appellee, nor Thomas E. Condell, has any interest therein. The appellant, Sudduth, as trustee, asks the instruction of the court as to the disposition to be made of the fund, both as to the income derived from the investment thereof and as to the principal of the fund itself, and not only as to the persons between whom the fund should be divided, but also as to the proportions in which the division should be made.

The grounds, upon which appellants base their contention, that the appellee has no interest in the fund, are, first, that he is barred from asserting such interest by the quit-claim deed or release, dated March 14, 1883, and executed by himself and his wife; and, second, that any interest which he would otherwise have had in the fund was extinguished by advancements made to him by the testator. In seeking a solution of the question involved, the subject will be considered from the two standpoints of the release and the advancements.

First, as to the release or quit-claim deed. In order to determine whether or not the instrument of March 14, 1888, had the effect of cutting off appellee’s claim to any part of the fund in question, it will be necessary to consider what is the character of the interest, which the surviving children of the testator took in the share, of Albert B. Condell after his death without living heirs of his body. The nature of this interest is fixed by the terms, and provisions of the will itself. Although the fund of §14,000.00 grew out of what was done under the agreement of January 19, 1882, yet, by the terms of that agreement, the fund was turned over to the trustee appointed under the will for the use of Albert “according to the will.” And .it is conceded by both sides, that the will operates to control the disposition of the fund. What then are the terms and provisions of the will, so far as they bear upon the interest of the testator’s children in the two-thirds share of Albert after he died without living heirs of his body?

The will directs the executors to sell all the estate, real and personal, except so much of the household furniture, etc., as the testator’s wife might think fit to retain; and all the legacies are to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale. The will is, therefore, to be regarded as a devise of money or personalty, and not of land. (Crerar v. Williams, 145 Ill. 625).

The legacies in the will of Thomas Condell to his wife, Elizabeth H. Condell, failed or lapsed by reason of her death before the death of the testator. This is true not only of the provision for the payment to her during her life of the interest or dividends on the one-sixth part of the estate mentioned in paragraph (a) of the fourth clause of the will, but also of the provision for adding the share of any child dying without living heirs of his body to the sum held in trust for her benefit during her natural life, as contained in paragraph (g). The general rule is, that, if a legatee dies before the testator, the legacy lapses, because the gift cannot take effect until the death of the testator, and, if the legatee is then dead, he cannot be benefited thereby. (2 Woerner on Am. Law of Adm. sec. 434; 13 Am. &Eng. Ency. of Law, p. 28). This rule, however, does not extend to a legacy given over after the death of the first legatee. (Prescott v. Prescott, 7 Metc. (Mass.) 141). Paragraph (f) of the fourth clause of the will provides, that two-thirds of the sixth part devised to Albert B. Condell, or, as the case now stands, the fund of §14,000.00, “is to be held by my executors as trustees, and in trust for him, and is to be loaned out on good security or kept invested in stocks, and the interest or dividends is to be paid to him as the same accrues and is received, during his natural life, and after his death the principal of his share or part is to be paid to his heirs.” The second sentence of paragraph (g) of the fourth clause provides, that, “in the event of the death of any of my children without living heirs of their body, their share of my estate shall be added to the sum held in trust for the benefit of my wife, Elizabeth H. Condell, during her natural life, and after her death the same shall be divided amongst my children in the same manner as is provided for the distribution of her share.” Because the share of Albert, dying without living children of his body, could not be added to the sum held in trust for the benefit of the testator’s wife by reason of her death before the death of the testator-, it does not follow, that the last provision, to-wit: “the same shall be divided amongst my children in the same manner as is provided for the distribution of her share,” is to be regarded as nugatory and of no effect. We have been referred to no authority so holding, nor have we been favored with any argument in favor of such a position. On the contrary, counsel on both sides have treated the provision in regard to division among the children as being in force, though they differ as to its proper construction. We shall, therefore, consider the last sentence of paragraph (g) as though it read as follows: “In the event of the death of any of my children without living heirs of their body, their share of my estate * * * shall be divided amongst my children in the same manner as is provided for the distribution of her share.”

What is meant by the expression: “in the same manner as is provided for the distribution of her share?” The reference here is evidently to paragraph (a) of the fourth clause, where one-sixth part of the remainder of the estate is required to be invested by the executors and the interest or dividends thereof to be paid to the wife during her life, and where, in the event of the wife dying without a will, as was the case here, it is provided as follows: “Then my executors, as trustees, shall hold the same in trust, and pay the interest or dividends derived therefrom to my children in such proportions as their circumstances may require to keep them from want or to furnish them with the necessaries of life for themselves and children.”

It will be noticed, that paragraph (a) only provides for the payment of the interest or dividends derived from the wife’s share to the children. It nowhere provides for the disposition of the principal of the one-sixth share set apart for the use of the wife during her life. Whether such principal was or was not intestate property, it is unnecessary for us to determine, as no question is made as to the wife’s share.

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Bluebook (online)
35 L.R.A. 360, 163 Ill. 566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glover-v-condell-ill-1896.