Lessee of Caulk v. Caulk

52 A. 340, 19 Del. 528, 3 Penne. 528, 1902 Del. LEXIS 13
CourtSuperior Court of Delaware
DecidedJune 6, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 52 A. 340 (Lessee of Caulk v. Caulk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lessee of Caulk v. Caulk, 52 A. 340, 19 Del. 528, 3 Penne. 528, 1902 Del. LEXIS 13 (Del. Ct. App. 1902).

Opinion

Pennewill, J.:

On the 29th day of December, 1862, Isaac Caulk, of New Castle County, made his last will and testament whereby he devised to his son, James Wesley Caulk, certain real estate in said county, to him the said James Wesley, his hems and assigns forever.

He devised certain other real estate in said county to his son, Leonard Caulk, to him, his heirs and assigns forever.

And certain other real estate in said county he devised to his son, Alfred Caulk, to him, his heirs and assigns forever.

By a subsequent item of his will the testator provided as follows : Item : and further,, my will and desire is that if either of my sons,¡James Wesley, Leonard and Alfred, should die leaving no child or children, then and in that case the survivors or survivor shall inherit the deceased one’s portion and portions, to them or either of them, their heirs and assigns forever.”

In the year 1898 the three sons, supposing the estates so devised to them to be estates tail, executed and delivered deeds of conveyance with intent to bar the same.

In 1900 the said Leonard Caulk died seized of the lands so devised, leaving no child or children, but a widow, Rebecca Caulk, party hereto, he the said Leonard, having made his last will and testament, whereby he devised his real estate to his wife Rebecca, for life, and after her death to an adopted son, a daughter-in-law, and his nearest of kin, the Caulk heirs.

[530]*530In 1902 James Wesley Caulk died, leaving a widow and six children, parties hereto.

At the time of the making of said will by Isaac Caulk all of his three sons were unmarried and without issue.

The question presented for the determination of this Court under the case stated and filed in the cause, is what estate did each of the three sons of Isaac Caulk take in the lands so devised to them in and by the will of the said Isaac Caulk.

It is conceded by counsel on both sides, as appears by the case stated, that each of said sons took either an estate tail, or a defeasible fee simple, with an executory devise over to the survivors or survivor upon the dying leaving no child or children living at the time of death. And it is agreed that judgment shall be entered accordingly.

The words “ child or children ” are ordinarily construed to be words of purchase and not words of limitation; but there are many cases involving the construction of wills in which such words have been held to be words of limitation and synonymous with issue. They have frequently been given such broader and more general meaning in order to carry out the manifest intention of the testator as gathered from the entire will.

It is true that such words, unaided by the context and unaffected by any other language in the will showing an intention to use them in a more comprehensive sense, would ordinarily restrict the failure of issue to the death of the first taker. But Courts have not been slow to seize upon any other words employed by the testator which show that his desire and intention was that the failure of issue was to be a general and indefinite one, and that not only children, but grandchildren, and even remoter issue, should be the beneficiaries of his bounty.

Jamison vs. McWhorter, 7 Houst., 242; Jarman on Wills, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194 and 195; Doe vs. Weber I. B. and Ald., 713; Doe vs. Simpson, 3 M. and G. 929; Hedges vs. Middleton Doug., 431; Smith vs. Hilliard, 3 Strobh Eq. (S. Car), 211; Park[531]*531man vs. Bowdoin I. Sunn. (U. S.) 359; Nightingale vs. Burrell, 15 Pick 104; Dunlap vs. Shrieve, 2 Duv. (Ky.), 334; Merryman vs. Merryman, 5 Munf. (Va.), 440; Purefoy vs. Rodgers, 2 Saunders, Part 2, p. 388 (Note 1); Wheatland vs. Dodge, 10 Mir., 502; Kent's Com. 278, Note 3; Greenleaf's Cruise on Real Prop., 303 and Note 1, pages 304 and 305; Raggett vs. Beaty, 5 Bing., 243; Bacon vs. Cosby, 4 De G. and S., 261; Amer. and Eng. Ency. of Law (2nd Ed.), 1090.

In the case of Doe vs. Weber the testator gave certain real estate to his niece, Mary Hiles, her heirs, executors, administrators and assigns forever; “ and my will is, that in case my niece, Mary Hiles, shall happen to die and leave no child or children, then * * * unto my niece, Jane Barns.” It was held that the words child or children ” were synonymous with issue. Lord Ellen-borough, C. J., said: In this case it has been contended that the words ‘ child or children ’ mean issue, and that the first devise is therefore converted into an estate tail by the limitation over on Mary Hiles’s dying and leaving no child or children, in which case the limitation is a remainder and barred by the recovery; or, if the first devise be considered to be in fee, that the limitation over is too remote, as being an executory devise after an indefinite failure of issue. It is true that the words child or children ’ may mean issue, and where the intent requires it the word ‘ children ’ has not been confined to the immediate descendants, though that is its ordinary and proper sense, but has been extended to all the descendants—as in Wilds case, 6 Coke 17. And in the present case the words ‘ child or children ’ must be construed to mean issue, because it is the manifest intention of the testatrix that Jane Barnes should not take by the devise over in exclusion of any of the issues, however remote, of Mary Hiles.”

In this case there were no particular words which clearly indicated any intention on the part of the testator to use the words child or children ” in the sense of issue, but the learned Judge thought from the entire will such was the manifest intention.

[532]*532It may be said, we think, generally and almost without exception that where the devise is to the first taker in fee simple with a limitation over if he leave no child or children (if there be no children living at the date of the will, and the subject matter of the will is real estate); the first taker has been held to take an estate tail, and the words “ child or children ” to import a general failure , of issue. Many of the cases above cited are to that effect.

In the case of Doe vs. Simpson, Lord Denman, C. J., although he considered that the testator had practically construed the words “ child or children ” by a subsequent provision of his will, nevertheless cited with approval the observations of Lord Ellenborough in the case of Doe vs. Weber. Mr. Jarman in his worjr on Wills, at pages 405 and 406, in commenting on the case of Raggett vs. Beaty, 5 Bing., 243, says: u This is the most signal instance in which an estate tail has been created by a devise over in case of the prior devisee leaving no child, though the tenor of the authorities discussed in the present chapter and some others, especially Doe vs. Weber (in which Lord Ellenborough had every little difficulty of construing the word “ children” in such a position as' synonymous with issue), had certainly paved the way to such a result. An example of this species of construction has since occurred (though with an assisting context) in Doe vs. Simpson—(The Court thought, however, that even without this clause there would have been strong grounds for coming to the same conclusion.) And in Bacon vs. Crosby, where a testator left 1

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Bluebook (online)
52 A. 340, 19 Del. 528, 3 Penne. 528, 1902 Del. LEXIS 13, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lessee-of-caulk-v-caulk-delsuperct-1902.