Loring v. Blake

98 Mass. 253
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1867
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 98 Mass. 253 (Loring v. Blake) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loring v. Blake, 98 Mass. 253 (Mass. 1867).

Opinion

Wells, J.

The only question which seems now to arise, in regard to the estate of Mrs. Blake, is whether the limitations she has provided are void for remoteness. In order to give all those provisions effect, may it require, in any contingency, that the ultimate disposition of the estate should remain in suspense for a period beyond lives in being and twenty-one years ?

The trustees are to hold during the life of each child, and of any surviving husband or wife. Upon the decease of any child, “ without a husband or wife, or upon the subsequent decease of such husband or wife,” the trustees are “ to hold the portion of such child” “to the use of his or her children, their heirs,” &c.; and “ if, at the decease of any child, his or her husband or wife, as the case may be, there should be no issue of such child living,” then to such person as such child should appoint by testamentary writing; or, in default of appointment, “ to such persons as would have been my heirs at law had I then died intestate.”

It was possible that a child of Mrs. Blake might marry a person not in being at the time of her decease; and that such person might be the survivor of the marriage. In that case, a limitation of her estate, not to take effect until after the decease of such unborn person, would be in violation of the rule against perpetuities; because it would not be supported by the definite measure of a life or lives in being and twenty-one years. By Mrs. Blake’s will the ultimate enjoyment and possession of the estate is thus postponed. The rule however regards, not the possession, but the title or absolute right. If that vest within the prescribed period, the rule is satisfied. It is necessary therefore to measure with precision the force and effect of the terms by which the limitation of the ultimate interest ia made.

[260]*260It will be seen that while there is an alternative as to the tim of enjoyment, depending upon whether a husband or wife shall survive the child of Mrs. Blake, this alternative affects only the time of such enjoyment or possession. In expressing the interest to be transmitted, and the objects who are to receive it, the same language is made applicable to either alternative. “ The portion of each child ” is to be held “ to the use of his or her children, their heirs,” &c. Applied to one alternative, this can only refer to children who should be living at the decease of any child of Mrs. Blake, and must embrace all the children of such parent. There is nothing to require a different application of the term “ his or her children ” in the other alternative, nor to show that the same identical persons were not intended in the one case as in the other; nothing to indicate an intention to make the interests of her grandchildren contingent upon their surviving such husbands or wives of her children. The enjoyment is postponed to enable the surviving husband or wife to receive the income during life; but the title, the absolute interest in remainder, is fixed at the decease of the child of Mrs. Sally Blake. This construction is, at least, in accordance with the manifest intent of the testatrix, and is effectual to accomplish the purpose she had in view; while the other construction, making the ultimate interests of the grandchildren await the decease of a surviving husband or wife, and remain contingent meanwhile, would defeat that purpose, by creating a perpetuity which the law would not sustain. In such a case, the court is bound to adopt that construction which will sustain the will and effectuate the objects of the testator.

Upon this interpretation of Mrs. Blake’s will, the whole interest in each share of her estate will become vested absolutely at the decease of the child for whose benefit the share was set apart. If there are issue living, it vests in such issue, subject to a life charge for the benefit of a surviving husband or wife. If no issue, then it vests at once,'either by appointment under the power, or in the persons who would stand in the relation of heirs to Mrs. Blake, if she had then died intestate. All these interests will therefore be supported by a life in being, namely, the life [261]*261of the child of Mrs. Blake, for whom the share is set apart. The limitation of a life interest to a surviving husband or wife, who may not have been born at the time of Mrs. Blake’s decease, does not tend to make a perpetuity; because that interest, although contingent during the life of the child of Mrs. Blake, becomes vested at the death of such child; and the limitation over, as we have already seen, is not at all dependent upon such life interest, but itself also becomes vested absolutely at the same time. 1 Jarman on Wills, (4th Am. ed.) 241, 265.

In executing the powers under the will of Joshua Blake, Mrs. Blake makes the same limitations as in disposing of her own estate, with the single difference of substituting heirs of Mr. Blake instead of her own heirs, in case of the death of any child without issue and intestate. Of course his estate must vest, under such an execution of the powers, at the same time with that of Mrs. Blake; namely, each share at the decease of the child for whose benefit it was directed to be set apart; that is, at the end of a life in being at the time of his decease. The objection of remoteness is not applicable therefore to the disposition of his estate. The interpretation which we have adopted frees the further consideration of the case entirely from difficulty on this ground.

But surviving husbands and wives, to whom Mrs. Blake limits an interest in the several shares appointed to the children, are not objects of the powers which she is authorized to execute. They cannot therefore take such interest by way of appointment. The range of objects extends only to children and such issue as should be living at the decease of Mrs. Blake. The limitation made by her extends to all issue of any child, living at the decease of such child. But grandchildren, born after the decease of Mrs. Blake, would be excluded from the range of objects to which the powers applied, and could not take by appointment.

It is urged, upon the one hand, that in so far as the exercise of the power of appointment by Mrs. Blake is excessive, it is merely void, and, being separable from that which is authorized by the power, it may be rejected, leaving the rest to stand. On [262]*262the other hand, it is argued that the dispositions which Mrs, Blake has made of her husband’s estate are so blended together the good with the bad, that it is impossible to separate them that her arrangements all constitute one scheme, the various parts of which are so inter-dependent that to reject a part and sustain another part would more completely defeat her purposes than it would to reject the whole; that even the life interests in the children ought not to be sustained without the rest, because the remainder of each share would, at the decease of the child to whom it was appointed, become distributable, as unappointed estate of Joshua Blake, among all his children; thus giving to the longest livers of them an undue share of his estate, contrary to the intent both of himself and of Mrs. Blake.

There certainly would seem to be no great difficulty in separating that which is well executed by Mrs. Blake from that which is unauthorized, by rejecting her provisions for surviving husbands and wives, and also for such grandchildren or issue as were not living at her decease.

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Bluebook (online)
98 Mass. 253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loring-v-blake-mass-1867.