Kemble's Estate

124 A. 94, 279 Pa. 368, 1924 Pa. LEXIS 740
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 11, 1924
DocketAppeals, Nos. 139 and 140
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 124 A. 94 (Kemble's Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kemble's Estate, 124 A. 94, 279 Pa. 368, 1924 Pa. LEXIS 740 (Pa. 1924).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Moschzisker,

These appeals involve the proper construction to be placed on the will, dated April 13, 1891, and a codicil executed in the same month, of William H. Kemble, who died September 16, 1891. The exact terms of so much of the will and codicil as are involved in the present case will be found in the notes of the reporter, published in connection with this opinion. The court below decided that appellants, the widow and the executors of a deceased grandchild of testator, took no interest in a share of income which had been enjoyed by the grandchild during his life, and that such income vested, at the [372]*372death of the grandchild, in his sister as the survivor of a class.

Testator placed his residuary estate in a trust to endure until the death of the survivor of his wife (who has since died), of his children (three in number, all of whom are likewise deceased) and of his grandchildren living at his death (some still survive), at which time the trustees are directed to convey the real estate and assign the personal estate “to such persons as would then take if I had died intestate at said date.” The widow having died, the trust for the income is, in the meantime, to pay to each of his children one-third thereof, “or if any child shall die leaving children [living] at my death to pay said child or children the income the parent would have been entitled to hereunder if he or she were living at the time of the payment.” (The word “living,” bracketed above, does not appear in the will at the place indicated, but it occurs almost immediately thereafter, and the opinion of the court below, from which the above correct outline of the will is taken, states it was conceded by all parties in interest that the insertion of the word as bracketed brings out and rightly expresses the intention of testator.) The codicil states that, if any of testator’s children die, his or her surviving husband or wife are to be paid, for life, one-third of the income bequeathed to the children of such deceased child, and “the remaining two-thirds only [are to] be distributed among my grandchildren” as provided in the will.

One of testator’s children, Clay Kemble, died leaving a widow, who, under the codicil, is admittedly entitled to one-third of his share of income, and two children, William and Florence; William died without issue, but Florence still lives, and the question presents itself whether she is entitled to the income received by her brother, during life, or whether that share is payable to the executors of William, or, his estate having been settled, to the latter’s widow as devisee under his will.

[373]*373The court below concluded that, so far as the gifts of income to children and grandchildren were concerned, the primary intention, evidenced by the will and codicil, was to confine these to two sets of beneficiaries, namely, testator’s own children and, upon their deaths respectively, the share enjoyed by each of them to be paid to their children living at testator’s death, in the manner provided by him and with the usual right of survivor-ship which pertains to members of a class; this conclusion is sustained by the writings in the case.

William H. Kemble evidently anticipated that which subsequently came about, the passing of his children leaving children to survive them; when the will was made, and at his death, five months later, he had living children and grandchildren, who became the beneficiaries of the income from his residuary estate, now enjoyed exclusively by the latter.

The will provides that only the grandchildren who survive their father or mother, as the case may be., shall be entitled to participate in the “quarterly payments” of' income, which are to continue until the death of all the children and the grandchildren living at the time of testator’s death; and it is contended by appellants that, since the will fails to state in terms what, on the death of a grandchild, becomes of the share of income theretofore enjoyed by that beneficiary, relevant rules of construction require the court to hold testator intended to vest this share in the grandchild for the full life, or period, of the trust, so that, on the prior death of such grandchild, it would become payable to the latter’s personal representatives, or, if the beneficiary had previously disposed of the income, or subjected it to the claims of others, then to the assignees or creditors.

The rules invoked by appellants have no application to the present will, because, as found by the auditing judge, the language employed clearly, discloses an intention to confine the payments of income (after the death of testator’s widow, and with the slight exception made by [374]*374the codicil in favor of the surviving spouses of deceased children) to the individuals composing the sets of beneficiaries designated by him, namely, his children and his grandchildren living at the time of any distribution. When carefully read, the words of the residuary devise sufficiently show this intent, and the terms of the codicil reenforce the construction of the will adopted by the learned court below. For instance, as previously pointed out, testator includes as beneficiaries of income only those grandchildren who survive their parent, the child of testator; if he wished to vest the interests of his grandchildren for the entire period of the trust, and thus provide for their respective spouses, why should he have discriminated as between grandchildren who survived and those who might predecease their parent? Then, testator failed altogether to provide for possible grandchildren born after his death; it seems unlikely, with these ignored, that he intended to provide for the husband or wife, heirs, creditors or assigns of grandchildren born in his lifetime. His scheme of distribution also rebuts an inference that he contemplated, in any contingency, strangers to his blood, after the death of a grandchild, becoming distributees of his bounty, since he stipulates that the trustee shall make “even quarterly payments as near as may be” to his wife, children and grandchildren, as they respectively become entitled to their shares of income under the will, and he confines the distribution so far as grandchildren are concerned, not to those born in his lifetime, but impliedly to those so born and still living when the shares of income allotted to them become distributable; for grandchildren living at testator’s death take under the will “the share the parent would have been entitled to thereunder” if he or she had been alive at the time of payment, and the provision is “to pay said child [grandchild] or children [grandchildren] the income in question. A legacy cast in the form of the present testamentary disposition, — a direction to pay at given times to designated classes,— [375]*375while not always conclusive evidence that the payee or payees are intended as the sole beneficiaries, to the exclusion of others claiming through him or them, is a circumstance showing a purpose not, in any manner or degree, to treat the legatee or legatees as sources of succession.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
124 A. 94, 279 Pa. 368, 1924 Pa. LEXIS 740, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kembles-estate-pa-1924.