Marbury v. Bouse

48 A.2d 582, 187 Md. 106, 166 A.L.R. 1272, 1946 Md. LEXIS 258
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJuly 23, 1946
Docket[No. 171, October Term, 1945.]
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 48 A.2d 582 (Marbury v. Bouse) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marbury v. Bouse, 48 A.2d 582, 187 Md. 106, 166 A.L.R. 1272, 1946 Md. LEXIS 258 (Md. 1946).

Opinion

Henderson, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case involves the construction of the will of Thomas Mackenzie, executed June 2, 1866, shortly before his death. His last surviving children, Cassandra and Catherine, died in 1945, and it became necessary to determine the amount of inheritance tax due by reason of interests in his estate, if any, passing under their wills.

The testator was a successful business man who was twice married. He had four children by his first marriage and six children by his second marriage. After the death of his first wife he remained a widower for some time, and the children born of the second marriage were quite young at his death, the oldest being then sixteen years of age.

*109 The general scheme of the will is plain. After disposing of certain personal items, he gave his furniture to his wife for life or widowhood, after which he directed that it be sold and the proceeds turned in to the general trust he created in item 6, the residuary clause. He gave certain amounts of his “capital” in his business to his three sons by his first wife, and directed that they continue the firm under the same name. He gave $1,000 of the “capital” to his daughter by his first wife, who seems to have been married to a rather wealthy man. The remaining $7,000 of the “capital” was to be loaned to the three sons, in order to create a trust fund for the benefit of his two younger sons by his second wife. He provided further that in the event of their death before reaching the age of twenty-one and leaving no children, that portion of the estate was to go into the general trust.

The rest and residue of the estate was left in trust for his wife during her life or widowhood, and at her death or marriage he provided that the net income, or so much as might be necessary, be appropriated to the support and education of his six minor children, naming them, until they should respectively reach the age of twenty-one. The clause provided: “Then in further trust to pay to each of said children over the age of twenty-one years his or her respective proportion, being an equal share of tfce net income for and during his or her natural life. In the event of the death of any of the children, whether under or over twenty-one years of age, without issue living at the time of such child’s death, the share of that child in the income and capital of the trust shall survive to the remaining children above named, share and share alike, but should a child dying leave issue then the share of such deceased child, both in the income and capital of the trust shall vest in such issue.”

The widow died, and thereafter Ella B. Mackenzie, a daughter, who had married Rev. Ogle Marbury, died in 1884, leaving an only child Ogle Marbury, the appellant. Thomas Mackenzie, Jr., died in 1927, unmarried, *110 without issue, testate. Edward Everett Mackenzie died in 1928, without issue, leaving a widow to whom he left his entire estate. She in turn conveyed whatever interest she may have acquired under the trust in the Mackenzie estate to Ogle Marbury.

Mary E. T. Mackenzie died in 1935, unmarried and without issue, and by her will left her interest in the Mackenzie estate to her two surviving sisters, Cassandra and Catherine, with remainder to Ogle Marbury or his descendants.

Cassandra Mackenzie died May 26, 1945, unmarried and without issue, leaving a will by which she conveyed her interest to her surviving sister Catherine, with remainder over to Ogle Marbury. Catherine Mackenzie Brevitt died December 6, 1945, a widow and without issue, and her will made the same disposition to Ogle Marbury of her interest in the Mackenzie estate.

The case was tried upon the assumption that Ogle Mar-bury, the only grandchild of Thomas Mackenzie by his second marriage, is entitled to the whole fund- constituting the general trust. But if portions of that fund pass to him under the original will, they pass free of inheritance tax, whereas if they pass under the wills of Cassandra and Catherine they are subject to collateral inheritance tax.

Difficult problems of construction are thus presented. The learned chancellor below held that upon the death of Ella Mackenzie Marbury, the first of Mr. Mackenzie’s children to die, her issue, Ogle Marbury, took a vested interest in a'one-sixth share of the corpus of the trust; that, thereafter, upon the death, without issue, of the other children of Mr. Mackenzie, Ogle Marbury did not participate in their shares of the corpus; that a share surviving to “remaining” children did not re-survive, but devolved as part of the estate of each of such remaining children; and that at the death of Cassandra (the next to last to die), she owned outright 13/72 of the whole estate, which passed in remainder under her will to Ogle Marbury, and at the death of Catherine (the *111 last to die) she owned outright 37/72 of the estate, which passed under her will to Ogle Marbury. The remaining 10/72 passed to Ogle Marbury, under this theory, by an assignment and under the will of Mary Mackenzie.

The appellant contends that upon the death of the testator each of his children took a vested interest in the whole corpus of the trust, subject to proportional defeasance by the death of one or more of the other children leaving issue; that the issue of deceased children share pari passu with living children in shares accruing on the death of named children without issue; and that shares which survived on the death of a child without issue, re-survive upon the death without issue of the first taker. Upon this theory the whole estate passed to the surviving grandchild under the original will. The cross-appellant appeals only from that part of the decree which holds that surviving shares did not re-survive. Upon this theory, 5/6 of the estate passed to the surviving grandchild under the will of Catherine.

We agree with the conclusion of the chancellor that a one-sixth share in the income and corpus of the trust vested in Ogle Marbury upon the death of his mother. The quantum of the share vesting was determined at that time; we see no force in the suggestion that he took a vested remainder in the whole fund. The language of the will directing payment of “his or her respective proportion, being an equal share of the net income” imports a tenancy in common with the other children then living. 3 Jarman, Wills, 7th Ed., p.'1768. See also Turner v. Withers, 23 Md. 18; Anderson v. Brown, 84 Md. 261, 35 A. 937; and Wilson v. Bull, 97 Md. 128, 54 A. 629. The question whether subsequent accretions. by reason of the decease of other children without issue pass to the appellant depends upon the language of the will, and not upon any theory of early vesting.

We think the expression “survive to the remaining children above named” imports that the accretion due to the death of one “without issue living at the time of such child’s death” goes to the children then living, to *112 the exclusion of the issue of a deceased child. As this Court said in Henderson v. Henderson, 131 Md. 308, 311, 101 A. 691, 692: “The word ‘remaining’ involves the idea of continuance in the same state or position.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ringgold v. Carvel
76 A.2d 327 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2001)
Chlanda v. Estate of Fuller
932 S.W.2d 760 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1996)
Fitzpatrick v. Wolfe
159 Mich. App. 120 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1987)
In Re Fitzpatrick Estate
406 N.W.2d 483 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1987)
Silberman v. Jacobs & Silberman
267 A.2d 209 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1970)
Nelson v. Iglehart
106 A.2d 115 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1954)
Walker v. Safe Deposit & Trust Co.
65 A.2d 311 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1949)
Boynton v. Barton
64 A.2d 750 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1949)
Evans v. Safe Deposit & Trust Co.
58 A.2d 649 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1948)
Ridgely v. Pfingstag
50 A.2d 578 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1946)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 A.2d 582, 187 Md. 106, 166 A.L.R. 1272, 1946 Md. LEXIS 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marbury-v-bouse-md-1946.