In re the Construction of Last Will & Testament of Ready

132 Misc. 616, 230 N.Y.S. 569, 1928 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1031
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedJuly 27, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 132 Misc. 616 (In re the Construction of Last Will & Testament of Ready) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Surrogate's Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Construction of Last Will & Testament of Ready, 132 Misc. 616, 230 N.Y.S. 569, 1928 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1031 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1928).

Opinion

Feely, S.

This testator, a local physician, having duly expressed in his last will on April 22, 1925, as to the disposition to be made at his death of his $25,000 estate, died on the 16th of November, 1926, without any notable change having occurred in his property, which consisted of about $14,000 in bank deposits, and the rest in Liberty bonds. He had never married. Two sisters, Delia and Mary, were supposed to be his only next of kin. Both are named as legatees.

He bequeathed, for and during her own lifetime, the use of all his estate to his elder sister, Deha, who died February 4, 1928. After his estate had been judicially settled, and the person named as executor had received letters of trusteeship, and had been paying over to Delia the income at the rate of $1,100 a year, it was then discovered that there were other next of kin, who, through no fault of the executor, had not been made parties to the probate proceedings, to wit, Zella R. Bragg, a daughter of his deceased [617]*617brother, Patrick B. Ready, living in New Mexico, and the surviving descendants of his deceased brother Michael Ready, a niece named Della R. Welch of Detroit, Mich., and a grandniece named Lucille Margaret Jones, living in Minnesota.

In.a proceeding then brought to reprobate the will, the trustee asked the court also to construe the will with reference to the conditions that developed upon the death of the legatee, Delia, and the discovery of the other next of kin. He had been paying Delia income at the rate of $1,100 a year. Her sister Mary survived her, and is still living. As to Mary, the testator in the 4th clause of his will provided that If my sister Mary O’Brien be living at the death of my sister Delia Ready, then I direct my executor hereinafter named to pay to my said sister Mary O’Brien the sum of fifty dollars per month during her lifetime.” This annuity totals $600 a year; and can, if need be, come out of principal. The annual income, at present, amounts to $1,100 a year. The question arises, what becomes of the rest of the income over Mary’s annuity of $600 during her lifetime? Is there a partial intestacy as to this excess income, or does it pass now to the remaindermen, either as such under the residuary clause of the will, or as presumptive beneficiaries under the provisions of section 63 of the Real Property Law, made applicable by section 11 of the Personal Property Law, whereby, during a lawful suspension, rents or interest, for the accumulation of which no valid direction has been given, shall belong to the persons presumptively entitled to the next eventual estate? ”

The residuary clause of this will reads that “ Upon the death of both my sisters, Mary O’Brien and Deha Ready, I give, devise and bequeath all the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, both real and personal, to [four adult non-relatives, named], or to such of them as may then be living, share and share alike.” (Italic is not in the original.)

This residuary clause is phrased broadly enough to carry everything not only that is not attempted to be disposed of, but also that is not effectually disposed of. Under the general rule, favoring vesting of remainders at the death of testator, the word after ” the death of the life tenant, or the phrase used here, upon the death ” of the life tenant, would merely postpone the use or possessory enjoyment, even where the remainder, after a fife use, is then given ” to several named individuals, “ or the survivor of them ” (Moore v. Lyons, 25 Wend. 119; cited in Kelso v. Lorillard, 85 N. Y. 177, 181; Matter of Mahan, 32 Hun, 73; affd., 98 N. Y. 372); but this last ruling is confined to those cases in which there is no other period to which the survivorship can be referred.” (Id.)

[618]*618The will in question here associated “ then ” with living,” rather than with “ giving; ” and thereby definitely fixed the death of the second sister named as the period of time at which to determine who will be the next recipients. In the meantime, these four named residuary legatees could not unite and absolutely extinguish all residuary rights under this will, because, before the arrival of the time fixed, they might all have died, and the residue would then pass as in intestacy. This residue, therefore, will not vest in, nor be possessed by, any one until the death of the second legatee, and then, possibly, not in any of these four named remainder-men, as such. Until the annuitant die, while these four may be said to own now a chance to become hereafter entitled to the next eventual estate, yet a condition precedent having been interposed, they are not now the owners of the residual estate, subject to defeasance hereafter, by a condition subsequent. Each of them must outlive the annuitant before they “ become entitled ” to the estate in the remainder. Until that contingency happen it is impossible to say who will own the eventual estate, as distinct from the chance of becoming such hereafter.

Had this remainder been one that vested in the four named — without any contingency or survivorship attaching — obviously, the presumed generality of the clause in this will purporting to devise and bequeath all the rest ” of the estate would alone carry the undisposed and unaccumulatable income in question over to them (See Matter of Kohler, 96 Misc. 433), and in such case it would be difficult to imagine what object section 63 of the Real Property Law was intended to attain in unnecessarily designating the persons to be deemed entitled to such excess. Where, however, a remainder is a contingent one, and its probable recipients ascertainable presently, even though they, in the end, may prove not to be the ones who ultimately take it, by reason of some condition subsequent working out a defeasance, yet the section mentioned can be said to serve the purpose of anticipating, as it were, the remainder, and of giving presently to those named the income undisposed of by the will, and meantime not legally to be accumulated; and thereby avoid deciding that, notwithstanding a narrow residual clause and the presumption against intestacy, the testator died intestate as to the excess income. It has been said that the statute is founded on the presumption that the donor of the property may naturally be supposed to intend that the income should go to the same person to whom he had given that out of which the income arises. (Dodge v. Pond, 23 N. Y. 69.) To this extent, we are all in accord.

This presumption, however, would lose its force if theltestator [619]*619left - it uncertain and presently unascertainable who those next takers or remaindermen would be. In determining just who are now the persons who would be the persons presumptively entitled to the next eventual estate ” a difficulty has arisen out of the survivorship provision in this remainder clause.

There can be no doubt that the “ eventual estate ” here will be the remainder, if any, on hand when the annuitant dies. It is also clear that the persons entitled thereto may be in either one of two classes: either the four remaindermen named, or the survivors or survivor of them, or else, if those four all should die before the annuitant — no matter whether they leave next of kin or not — then those who at that time are the next of kin of the testator — and just who they then will be is not now known and cannot be ascertained until then.

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Related

In re the Estate of Becker
47 Misc. 2d 443 (New York Surrogate's Court, 1965)
In re the Estate of Shupack
158 Misc. 873 (New York Surrogate's Court, 1936)

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132 Misc. 616, 230 N.Y.S. 569, 1928 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1031, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-construction-of-last-will-testament-of-ready-nysurct-1928.