In Re Fletcher's Estate

1957 OK 7, 308 P.2d 304
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 15, 1957
Docket37365
StatusPublished

This text of 1957 OK 7 (In Re Fletcher's Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Fletcher's Estate, 1957 OK 7, 308 P.2d 304 (Okla. 1957).

Opinion

308 P.2d 304 (1957)

In the Matter of the ESTATE of Birdine FLETCHER, Deceased.
A.J. SIMLER, Plaintiff in Error,
v.
W.H. WILSON, the Executor of the Estate of Birdine Fletcher, Deceased, Defendant in Error.

No. 37365.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

January 15, 1957.
Rehearing Denied March 12, 1957.

Leslie L. Conner, Phil E. Daugherty and John B. Ogden, Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.

Fred E. Suits, Mary L. Weiss, J.B. Dudley, Oklahoma City, for defendant in error.

*306 CORN, Vice Chief Justice.

This appeal presents questions arising from the litigation involving the will of Birdine Fletcher, who died July 13, 1952. The matters hereafter delineated sufficiently disclose the factual situation out of which arose the question herein considered.

The will contained 22 separately numbered paragraphs, which made the following disposition of testatrix' property (stating only the substance of certain of these).

"1. I will and direct the payment of all of my just debts and obligations of every kind and character, including funeral expenses and expenses of *307 my last illness, and taxing obligations, State and Federal, and the sums hereinafter mentioned and set out for Mass Offerings, as soon as possible after my death.
"2. I will and direct the payment of $1600.00 as Mass Offerings to be distributed to the following: To His Excellancy, Bishop Eugene J. McGuinness, Bishop of Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and/or his successor in office, the sum of $1000.00, to be distributed by him as he deems best; To the Carmelite Fathers, 1125 South Walker, the sum of $100.00 for three (3) set of Gregorian Masses and ten other Masses; to Father James H. Ross, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, $200.00; Carmelite Fathers, Marylake Novitiate, Hinsley, Arkansas, $100.00 and ask that three set of Gregorian Masses and 10 others, be said immediately; to Msgr. Gilbert Hardesty, $100.00. It is my wish and I do so direct immediate payment of the above.
"3. Paragraphs No. 3-16, inclusive contained cash bequests of from $1.00 to $500.00 to friends and relatives, including bequests of $1.00 `this amount and no more' to her brother, plaintiff herein.
"17. To Sainto Anthony's Hospital, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, $50,000.00.
"18. To Saint Patrick's Mission, Anadarko, Oklahoma, $5000.00.
"19. To Saint Joseph's Orphanage, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, $10,000.00.
"20. All of the rest, residue and remainder of my property, both real and personal, wherever situated, I will and bequeath to Mount Alverno Convent of Maryville, Missouri, St. Francis Hospital, Maryville, Missouri, and St. Anthony Hospital of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, share and share alike."

Attached to this will was a list of testatrix' property, wherein it appeared testatrix then had U.S. Government Bonds ($85,800) and cash on hand ($10,546) totaling more than $96,000, as well as secured promissory notes for $28,065. The inventoried value of the listed personal property at the time of her death amounted to $125,281.82. The total of the various cash bequests in the will amounted to $69,009.

After admission of this will to probate (October 2, 1952) the contestant, plaintiff herein, appealed to the district court where judgment was rendered sustaining this order of the county court. Upon appeal to this court the judgment was affirmed. See In re Fletcher's Estate, Okl., 269 P.2d 349.

While the appeal from the county court's order was pending in the district court plaintiff instituted a declaratory judgment action in the Federal District Court, seeking determination that the devise of realty was void by reason of the constitutional prohibition, Const. art. 22, Sec. 2, against a religious corporation receiving and owning realty in certain instances. From an adverse judgment plaintiff appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals, where judgment of the Federal District Court was reversed and the cause remanded. See Simler v. Wilson, 10 Cir., 210 F.2d 99. The effect of such judgment was that the farm land in Caddo county was taken out of testatrix' residuary estate and title thereto vested in this plaintiff.

Numerous other actions were filed in the Federal Courts restraining the executor, defendant herein, from proceeding in the state courts. From adverse judgments plaintiff appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals, where a consolidated judgment (in 3 cases) was entered purportedly effectuating distribution of the estate. The defendant executor's application for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court was granted on November 14, 1955, and an order entered vacating the judgment of the Circuit Court, and reinstating the judgments of the Federal District Court. See Wilson v. Simler, 350 U.S. 892, 76 S.Ct. 153.

November 30, 1954 the county court entered a decree allowing the final account, determining heirs and making final distribution *308 of the estate. The final account reflected a distributable estate of $322,705.51, including the oil producing farmland at the appraised value of $150,000. Comprising a substantial portion of the estate was the sum of $146,683.49 in cash, of which amount $69,033.39 represented oil income from the farms during the period from July 13, 1952 to March 30, 1954.

So far as concerned herein the county court found testatrix had made valid disposition of all her property except the Caddo county farm, as to which she died intestate, and this property passed to plaintiff, who was her sole heir. The county court further found:

"That decedent in her will appropriated no property for the payment of debts, expenses of administration or legacies, and that therefore all of said debts, expenses, including estate and income taxes and legacies must be paid from said farm, together with the rents and royalties which have accrued therefrom since the death of decedent, which is the only property of decedent not disposed of by will; all as provided by Section 3 and 4, Title 84, Okla. Stat. Ann.
"It Is Further Ordered that the total debts and expenses of administration, as allowed herein, except the balance of estate and income taxes, which cannot now be definitely determined, are $58,700.92; that the specific legacies provided in the will as hereinafter shown total $69,009.00, with interest on said legacies from July 13, 1953, to March 30, 1954.
"It Is Further Ordered that the farm in Caddo county herein described and the rents and royalties therefrom which have accrued since July 13, 1952, are subject to the payment of all debts, expenses of administration, including estate and income taxes, and all specific legacies, with interest to March 30, 1954. It is the intention to distribute title to said farm in A.J. Simler free and clear of all obligations of any nature whatsoever except as herein set out."

The expenses allowed did not include undetermined estate and income taxes, to cover which the county court ordered reservation of $25,000 from the intestate property. The decree then provided distribution of the Caddo county land to plaintiff, with all income therefrom after July 13, 1952, after payment of "all debts, expenses of administration, including taxes, and all legacies with accrued interest." The order also decreed distribution to the named legatees, and set over to the residuary legatees the residuary estate.

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Related

Simler v. Wilson
210 F.2d 99 (Tenth Circuit, 1954)
In Re Fletcher's Estate
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In Re Revard's Estate
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Rinehart v. Rinehart
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In Re Fletcher's Estate
1957 OK 7 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1957)
Wilson v. Simler
350 U.S. 892 (Supreme Court, 1955)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1957 OK 7, 308 P.2d 304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-fletchers-estate-okla-1957.