Lockman v. Reilley

36 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 434
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1883
StatusPublished

This text of 36 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 434 (Lockman v. Reilley) 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
Lockman v. Reilley, 36 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 434 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1883).

Opinions

Daniels, J.:

By the judgment which was recovered, a contract entered into between the plaintiff and the defendant for the sale and conveyance of land situated on One Hundred and Fifty-first street in the city of New York, was directed and required to be specifically performed. The defendant resisted the action, and has taken this appeal from the judgment, under the apprehension that he could not acquire a legal title to the property by taking the deed proposed to be given to him by the plaintiff. And if he is right in that position, then it ia entirely clear that he should not be required to take the title pro posed to be conveyed, or to pay the purchase-price of the property. (Brooklyn Park Com. v. Armstrong, 45 N. Y., 235, 248.) For the court will not impose a questionable or disputable title upon the defendant by means of such an .action.

The title to the property, which was vested in the plaintiff as executor, was obtained by means of the foreclosure of a mortgage executed by J. Mansfield Davies, then the conceded owner of the property, to Edward De Witt and Richard Carman Combes, as executors, etc. This mortgage became the property of the plaintiff, and it was by a foreclosure and sale of the premises under it that he derived his title to the land. Previous to the commencement of that action the land had been conveyed by Davies to William H. Raynor, who himself also conveyed it to David M. Clarkson, subject to the mortgage given by Davies. When Raynor conveyed the property to Clarkson he also took a mortgage upon it from him to secure a portion of the purchase-price. After Raynor’s decease his widow, as executrix under his will, foreclosed this second mortgage by an action, making Clarkson the defendant in the action. Under the judgment she purchased the property, and it was conveyed to her in terms as executrix and trustee under the will of her deceased husband, and she held the title under that conveyance at the time when the action was brought to foreclose the mortgage previously given by Davies.

In that action she was made a defendant and so were the other persons named in the will of Raynor as executors and trustees, but [436]*436who failed to qualify and enter upon the discharge of their duties as such. At his decease Raynor left him surviving, in addition, to his widow, four children, who were also made defendants in the action: prosecuted by the plaintiff for the foreclosure of the Davies mortgage. Two of these children themselves having intermarried, had children at the time when that action was commenced, and who are still living, but they were not made parties to it. And it is practically for their omission as parties that the defendant declined to receive and accept the conveyance of the property proposed to be given to him by the plaintiff. If these grandchildren were interested in the-property, as it is alleged they were, then the title is defective on account of the omission to make them parties to the action for the foreclosure of the mortgage under which the plaintiff obtained his title. And 'for the purpose of determining whether they were so interested or not it will become necessary to consider the terms of the will left by Raynor at the time of his decease.

By this will, after making certain specific gifts and dispositions of personal propei’ty, he gave, devised and bequeathed all the rest, residue and remainder of his estate, real and .personal, to his executrix and executors, the survivors and survivor of them, in trust, with power to ■ receive the rents and profits of- the same, and to sell, dispose of and convey the same at such time or times, and in such manner as to them should -seem proper and best for the interests -of the estate, and to invest and keep invested such rents and profits and the proceeds of the sale or sales. And he then directed them to apply the income of two-sixths parts of such residue and remainder semi-annually to the use of his wife during the term of her natural life, and after her decease these two-sixths were devised and bequeathed to his children living at her decease, and the lawful issue -of any deceased child or children. The income of another one-sixth was directed to be in like manner applied to the use of the testator’s son, "William IT. Raynor, during his life; and after his death it was devised and bequeathed to his children living at the time of his decease, and the lawful issue of any of his deceased child or children. A similar disposition was made of the income of another -sixth of the estate. It was devised and bequeathed in favor of his daughter,' Elizabeth M. Scott, during her natural life, and after that to her children and the issue of any deceased child or [437]*437children. Another sixth was devoted in like manner to the use of his daughter, Adelaide Tilt, during her life, and the remainder, after her decease, directed to be divided equally between her children and the issue of any deceased child or children she might leave surviving her. The remaining sixth was in like manner devoted to the use of his daughter Minnie for life, and at her decease directed to be divided equally between her children and the child or children of any of her deceased children.

The will finally directed that in case any of the testator’s children should die without leaving lawful issue surviving them, the portion of the child or children so dying should be distributed between his surviving children and the lawful issue of any deceased child or children. The child or children of any deceased child of the testator to share in the estate per stirpes and tvoí per capita.

The effect of these directions contained' in the will of the testator was to create a trust estate in the executrix during the respective lives of the widow and children who were to be benefited by its income. Except the two-sixths, the income of which was payable to the widow during her life, and was distributable among the testator’s children after her decease, and their contingent rights by survivorship to the shares of either of the other children dying without issue, they took no direct interest in the estate.

That was first vested in the trustee for the purpose of sustaining and providing for the proper administration of the trust as long as it should be continued. What the children of the testator were entitled to in the other four-sixths of the estate, was their respective shares of its income and profits. As to these sixths the executrix and trustees held and owned in trust one-fourth of each during the life and for the benefit of each of the testator’s children, to whom the like proportion of the income and profits was payable. For neither of them took any interest in either of these shares except by contingent survivorship.

The absolute title to them, beyond the right of his own children by survivorship, by reason of the decease of either child without issue, was given to their children after the periods when the testator’s own children should respectively become deceased. It was in these children, therefore, so far as they might survive the testator’s own children, that the legal title to the four-sixths would become [438]*438vested' in possession after the expiration of the trust estate. And as their title included four-sixths of the real and personal estate devised and bequeathed in the first instance to the trustees, the children of the testator’s children became the owners of a vested remainder in this portion of the testator’s estate.

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Bluebook (online)
36 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lockman-v-reilley-nysupct-1883.