Lovett v. Kingsland

44 Barb. 560, 1865 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 90
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 3, 1865
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 44 Barb. 560 (Lovett v. Kingsland) 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
Lovett v. Kingsland, 44 Barb. 560, 1865 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 90 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1865).

Opinion

•Sutherland. J.

It is plain, I think, that the will must be construed without the aid of the doctrine of equitable conversion.

The testator says, “it is my will that no part of my real estate be sold or incumbered during the lives of my two daughters, or either of them,” &c. The power of sale which is given to the executors, is a power to sell and convey after the death of the testator’s two daughters, for the purpose of the intended future division or distribution. How, then, can we in construing the-will now, in the life time of the daughters, consider the real estate included in the gift to the grandchildren, converted into personal ? The fiction of equitable conversion is used to carry out the will of the testator, not to defeat it.

It is plain that the testator intended to dispose of all his estate, real and personal, by his will; and it is plain too, I think, that the gift to the grandchildren must be regarded as a residuary gift, though the testator does not use the word, remaining, or residue. There can not be a doubt that the gift to the grandchildren was intended to be a gift of all the testator’s estate, real and personal, remaining after the previous gifts, or after providing for the previous gifts ; that it was intended to carry all the testator’s estate, except so much or such part thereof as has been previously disposed of by the will.

It is plain, that even as to the residuary real estate, the gift to the grandchildren does not create, or give to them future estates, as remainders. It can not create or give future estates as remainders, without the intervention of a precedent estate created at the same time. (See 1 R. S. 723, §§ 10, 11, and the common law definition of Remainder in any of the boohs.)

In this case then the gift to the grandchildren, even as to the residuary real estate, could not take effect as a remainder, or as remainders, without an implied devise to the daughters for the life of the longest liver of them; but to imply such a [565]*565devise would seem to be inconsistent with the fact that the daughters are the heirs at law. (1 Jarman on Wills, 465, and cases cited.) It would be difficult, I think, to find a case in which a devise to the heir at law has been implied; for in the case of an executory devise to a stranger, without any disposition by the will of the subject of the executory devise, until the devise takes effect, why should not the heir at law take and enjoy as heir until then?

It would seem, too, that to imply a devise to the daughters, would be inconsistent with the gift to the'grandchildren as a residue; and it would plainly be inconsistent with the gift of the annuities to the daughtersfor the testator certainly did not intend these annuities to be paid out of the daughters’ own incomes, or to be paid, or provided for, out of the property given to them for the life of the longest liver of them.

Indeed, I think it may be said, that to imply a devise of the residuary real estate to the daughters, for the life of the longest liver of them, would be inconsistent with the whole scheme of the will, for it is apparent from the whole will, that the testator intended the income of his whole residuary estate to be accumulated until the death of the longest liver of his two daughters, for the benefit of his grandchildren.

It is perfectly plain, then, that the daughters can not take, and can not have, any right in or to the subject of the gift to the grandchildren, or its income under the will. It is plain that then claim of any such right or interest must rest on the theory, that the gift to the grandchildren is executory ; that there was a partial intestacy as to the residuary personalty, that is, of the income of it from the testator’s death until the death of the longest liver of the two daughters; and that as to the residuary real estate, it descended to them, as heirs at law, with its rents and profits, to hold and enjoy until the executory devise of it to the grandchildren takes effect.

Of course, the validity of the gift to the grandchildren, as [566]*566an executory limitation of the corpus or principal of the gift, to take effect in possession, on or after the death of the longest liver of the two daughters, is not, and can not be questioned.

How, in my opinion, the gift to the grandchildren can not be regarded as executory, even in form. I think the words of futurity in the gift must be regarded as relating merely to the intended division or distribution.

As to Helena Gillender, the gift is in apt and sufficient words to make the gift as to her, a present, vested, absolute gift of,one fourth part of the residuary estate, real and personal. The words are, “ I give to my granddaughter, Helena Gillender, one fourth part of all my real and personal estate,” and then follows the words, “and the other three fourths to be equally divided between the rest of my grandchildren, after the death of my two daughters, Augusta and Mary, and no division in any case before that time.” The testator certainly did not intend that the gift should be a present immediate gift as to Helena Gillender’s one fourth, and a future or executory gift as to the Kingsland grandchildren’s three fourths. I think, then, the gift as to the Kingsland grandchildren should he looked upon as worded, or intended to be’ worded, “ and the other three fourths I give to the rest of my grandchildren, to be equally divided between them, after the death of my two daughters, Augusta and Mary, and no division in any case before that time.”

I think the gift to the grandchildren should be regarded, as a present, absolute gift, to be divided after the death of the testator’s.two daughters, and not as a future or executory gift, after the death of the daughters to be divided.

The testator by the words, “and no division in any case before that time,” probably intended to forbid any division, either as between Helena Gillender and the Kingsland grandchildren, or as between the latter, until after the death of his daughters.

How, I consider the fact, that the gift to the grandchildren [567]*567is to be regarded as in apt and sufficient words, to make the gift, a present vested, absolute gift, to be the controllipg fact or circumstance in the construction of the will; and the controlling legal principle in its construction, I consider to be, the rule of construction, which has great latitude in- construction of wills, that when the testator’s general or primary intention appears, “the court, in order to give it effect, will sacrifice to it a particular (or secondary) intention, inconsistent with it.”

A reference might be made to a large number of reported cases illustrating this rule or principle of construction. I refer to the following : Lane v. Lane, (8 Allen’s Mass. R. 353;) Craig v. Wells, (1 Kern. 322;) Bradley v. Peixoto, (3 Vesey, Jr. 323;) Roosevelt v. Thurman, (1 John. Ch. 228 to 230.)

It is plain, that the testator intended that his grandchildren should have the whole benefit of all his residuary estate, real and personal.

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Related

Duffy v. Duffy
3 N.Y.S. 23 (New York Supreme Court, 1888)
Bonard's Will
16 Abb. Pr. 128 (New York Surrogate's Court, 1872)

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Bluebook (online)
44 Barb. 560, 1865 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lovett-v-kingsland-nysupct-1865.