Haug v. Schumacher

28 Misc. 671, 59 N.Y.S. 1056
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 15, 1899
StatusPublished

This text of 28 Misc. 671 (Haug v. Schumacher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haug v. Schumacher, 28 Misc. 671, 59 N.Y.S. 1056 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1899).

Opinion

Russell, J.

John C. Haug, of the city of Hew York, died the 26th day of December, 1897, owning personalty of the value of $77,000, and realty of the value of $114,000. He left a widow, Walburga Haug, a son, Christian C. Haug, the plaintiff, who is married, but childless; another son, Frederick L. Haug, married, with four children, aged from two years to eleven, and a grandson, the only child of his deceased daughter, Louisa Hildenbrand, which grandson is now of the age of thirteen years.

The clauses of his will which require construction by this court, are as follows:

“Sixth. It is my will and pleasure and I hereby direct that none of my real estate shall be sold until after the death of my said wife and my two sons.
“Seventh. I give and bequeath the equal one-third part of all the income, rents, issues and profits of all the rest, residue and remainder of my lands and real estate of what nature and kind [673]*673soever and whatever the same may he at the time of my death to my wife Walhurga Haug for and during the term of her natural life or so long as she shall remain my widow and not marry again in lieu of dower, the remaining equal two-thirds of the income, rents, issues and profits of my said lands and real estate, I give and bequeath to my two sons, Fréderick Ludwig Haug and Christian Charles Haug to be divided among them equally share and share alike.
“Eighth. Immediately upon the death of my said wife or her remarriage whichever event shall first happen, I give, and bequeath, all the income, rents, issues and profits of my said lands and real estate to my two sons Frederick Ludwig Haug and Christian Charles Haug to be divided among them equally share and share alike.
“Ninth. ■ Immediately after the death of my said wife and the death of my said two sons Frederick Ludwig Haug and Christian Charles Haug, I give, devise and bequeath all of my said estate, real and personal, to all of my grandchildren, to be divided among them equally share and share alike, per capita, not per stirpes.
“Tenth. I hereby authorize ánd empower my executors to rebuild any of the buildings now standing upon any of my lands and which may become destroyed or dilapidated by fire or otherwise, and to use and employ any moneys or funds that may be in their hands belonging to my estate for the purpose of such rebuilding.”

In case of intestacy, the laws of the State of Hew York endeavor to make a fair disposition of the property of the deceased, with due regard to the claims of next of kin and heirs. But there is accorded to the testator as an inherent right, where he has accumulated or preserved property, the power to dispose of the same by will, and let his parting directions govern its ultimate disposition, although he has forever ceased to need its use. This is not only as an incentive to the judicious conservation of property through life, but because he, better than all others, knows the condition in which he leaves it; the needs of those who are dependent upon him; the safeguards required to accomplish benefit, combined with protection, and all of the other details of fact and circumstance involved in correct judgment. The courts will go far to accomplish the beneficial results if they can safely ascertain the testator’s wishes., They will not allow rules designed by [674]*674public policy to be transgressed; but if they can effectuate the main object of the testator’s directions, they will blot out those lingual expressions which bring invalidity, but which only serve to frustrate the testator’s design. Even a limitation may be implied to effectuate the general scheme. Roe v. Vingut, 117 N. Y. 204.

The separation of the void finishing of a trust from the valid part of the trust may be made. Duncklee v. Butler, 38 App. Div. 103.

A division may be had of the portion into separate funds to save it from the objection of invalidity; Allen v. Allen, 149 N. Y. 280.

Even though there be an implied provision as to accumulations which renders the trust as a whole ineffective, the primary intent may be regarded and the valid trust separated from the void. Cochrane v. Schell, 140 N. Y. 516.

Though the scheme be to preserve the fund as a unity for investment, a severance of it into shares by a conclusion of law may be made to prevent undue suspension. Schermerhorn v. Cotting, 131 N. Y. 48.

Though the restriction of the vesting of title to such children as shall be living at a future time, may render the vesting of that title at such time impossible, as offending the policy of the law, yet such restriction may be lopped off to prevent the necessary conclusion. Henderson v. Henderson, 113 N. Y. 1.

In the present case, no express trust is created by the will, giving title to the executors, of the realty or the personalty; and none will be implied where such implication makes the disposition of the property void. Greene v. Greene, 125 N. Y. 506.

So far as I can penetrate the wishes of the testator in this imperfectly drafted will, he desired to provide a satisfactory income for his wife and two sons during their respective lives, and to give thereafter to his grandchildren the estate per capita, and not per stirpes, so that each living descendant of the second degree should participate in the bounty of the grandfather. His eye was mainly upon'the realty, which was the largest part of his property, and he knew that his personalty would be diminished by the payment of the specific legacies and his obligations, including probably the mortgage on one of the pieces of realty. His widow and his two sons needed the benefits of his property, undiminished by the power of deduction through their alienation [675]*675of any part during their lives; each dying, he or she needed that benefit no longer, and it was among the survivors he had to look for the distribution of the benefits of the residue. By the seventh clause of his will, he indicates the use of the income during the three lives, giving to the widow until a possible remarriage, in lieu of dower, the income of one-third from his realty, and to each of his two sons the income of another third. By the eighth clause, he provides for the passage over to the sons of the widow’s income on her death or remarriage, leaving out of this portion of his will any right of survivorship as between the two sons, thus making them tenants in common during their respective lives, but with no direction, the absence of which is significant, as to the income of the realty during the life of the third survivor.

He suspends the power of alienation of the whole only during the life of the widow; he further, immediately after the death of the wife and the death of the two sons, devises and bequeaths all of his real and personal property to all of his grandchildren per capita, and not per stirpes. If one son dies without the vesting of a separate share of the realty, he has made no provision whatever for the continued income of that share during the life of the other son. He does not give it to that surviving son, nor does he anywhere indicate that either of these two sons shall have the income of the whole in any contingency.

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Related

Mullarky v. . Sullivan
32 N.E. 762 (New York Court of Appeals, 1892)
Schermerhorn v. . Cotting
29 N.E. 980 (New York Court of Appeals, 1892)
Roe v. . Vingut
22 N.E. 933 (New York Court of Appeals, 1889)
Greene v. . Greene
26 N.E. 739 (New York Court of Appeals, 1891)
Cochrane v. . Schell
35 N.E. 971 (New York Court of Appeals, 1894)
Henderson v. . Henderson
20 N.E. 814 (New York Court of Appeals, 1889)
Williams v. . Freeman
98 N.Y. 577 (New York Court of Appeals, 1885)
Allen v. . Allen
43 N.E. 626 (New York Court of Appeals, 1896)
Duncklee v. Butler
38 A.D. 99 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1899)

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Bluebook (online)
28 Misc. 671, 59 N.Y.S. 1056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haug-v-schumacher-nysupct-1899.