Matthews v. Hudson

7 S.E. 286, 81 Ga. 120
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJuly 12, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 7 S.E. 286 (Matthews v. Hudson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matthews v. Hudson, 7 S.E. 286, 81 Ga. 120 (Ga. 1888).

Opinion

Bleckley, Chief Justice.

The will does not expressly limit the son’s interest, as beneficiary, to his life, nor is anything appointed for the trustee to do except to sell, distribute the proceeds and pay them over to another trustee in case of the son’s death without child or children. No power of sale or management is conferred on the trustee, to be exer[124]*124cisecl during the life of the son, and the trust was to become active in the one event only, that is, death without child or children. The devise, legally speaking, as to the measure of the estate taken by the son, is not materially different from what it would have been if no trustee had been interposed, but the gift made directly to the son and then to the other children of the testatrix on the contingency mentioned. The trust has no significance in measuring the estate, but is- virtually a power of sale, etc., exercisable alone on the given contingency. In case of death with children, the trustee will have as little to do after death as before, that is, nothing whatever. The testatrix appointed a ti’ustee and invested him with the formal legal title, so that he might appear on the scene for the execution of a specific power if a certain contingency happened. Upon the happening of that contingency, and in that event only, was the fee in behalf of the son to be defeated. The devise was in trust for him, not merely for his use and enjoyment, but the title was put in the trustee for him, without any limit as to time, save on the single condition of death without immediate offspring. Should he die with such offspring, there would be nothing to cut down, reduce or determine his estate in the property.

The contention is, on the part of the complainants in the bill, that the son took but an estate for life, with remainder to his children, if any, and if none, then the remainder went over to the other children of the testatrix. Estates by implication are not favored, and the supposed remainder in behalf of the son’s children rests wholly on implication. The implication in this case is a possible but not a necessary one, for the terms of the will are quite as consisent with an intention on the part of the testatrix to give the absolute fee to her son in case he had children, as to give a life estate only with [125]*125remainder to such children. There was on her part no want of confidence in the intelligence, discretion and virtue of the son, for she not only, in another part oí the will, gave to him directly and absolutely slaves and other personalty, but constituted him, the trustee for her other children; and it would be to his successor in this trust that his own trustee would have to account for the proceeds of the land in question in case he had to administer it by.reason of the son’s dying childless. The beneficiary of the first trust (the son) was appointed trustee to take and hold the testatrix’s bounty to the beneficiaries of the second trust, her other children. Whilst she constituted another trustee for him as to this land, she constituted him trustee for her other children as to what she gave them out of her estate, including, according to the letter of the will, their contingent interest in the proceeds of this land; but of course, as he would be dead before this interest could vest, if it ever vested, she did not expect him, but his successor, to receive the proceeds of the land from the son’s trustee in case the executory devise took effect. Can it be surmised with any degree of probability that a mother who could trust her son, not only to take without restriction slaves and other personalty under her will, but to represent her other children in a fiduciary capacity, intended not to trust him to provide for his own children in his own way, if he should have children ? And this is the very hinge of the case. Hid she trust him to provide for them, or did she intend to provide for them herself by an implied limitation of his interest in this land to an estate for his own life, and by an implied remainder in fee to them after his death ? If provision for his children was her purpose, there is a strong probability that she would have expressed it, and not left it to implication. It is plain that she was not swayed by a de[126]*126sire to keep this particular land in the family; she did not devise it specifically to her other children on the contemplated contingency, but directed a sale of it and a division of the proceeds. Had she intended it or its proceeds to go, by way of remainder, to her son’s children, would she not also have directed a sale and division in their behalf, or else have said that the land itself and not its proceeds was to be theirs. Mark that the devise over is not of the land, but of the proceeds of its sale; the identical property given to the son is never to reach the other children of the testatrix or their trustee, but only the money which it brings when sold. If there is a remainder created for the son’s children it is in the land, and if a remainder over, it is in a different thing, the fund produced by a sale of the land.

Independently of the special features of this will to which we have called attention, there are several cases in our reports which tend to show that on general principles this devise creates a base or qualified fee, and not an estate for life with contingent remainders. Hill vs. Alford, 46 Ga. 247; Harris vs. Smith, 16 Ga. 545; Gibson vs. Hardaway, 68 Ga. 370; Groce vs. Rittenberry, 14 Ga. 232.

Though not read or cited in the argument, our attention has since been called to Wetter vs. The United Hydraulic Co., 75 Ga. 540, a case which, at first view, seems directly in point, and the devise construed is apparently in some respects stronger for a base fee than the one now under consideration, yet the court held that only a life estate was created in the first taker, and that the subsequent limitation implied a contingent remainder in favor of children, with remainder over in the event that failed. But the will involved in that case was made in 1839, when the old law prevailed both as to marital rights and sole inheritance by the husband, and the [127]*127legatee, tlien an infant, was the daughter of the testatrix, and by the will took the whole of her estate, real,, personal and mixed. She afterwards married, and died leaving children, who claimed the property in controversy, under the will, as devisees in remainder. By that, will the infant daughter, on attaining majority, was then to become the absolute owner of all the mother’s estate, to have and hold the same, “ and her heirs forever.” Custody and control of the estate were, in the meantime, given to the executors for her use and' benefit. If she-died leaving no issue or lineal heirs, the whole estate was to go and belong to the mother and sister of testatrix, as tenants in common, and their heirs forever; and should the daughter survive them and die without issue “ as aforesaid ” then living, the whole estate was to vest in the next of kin of testatrix then living, and their heirs forever. The executors were authorized to assume and exercise the necessary and lawful trust “herein prescribed” as to custody of the estate, and at their discretion to sell the same, or any part, to vest the proceeds in stocks, and to transfer the same to the daughter at majority, or to the mother and sister, or other heirs after the-daughter’s death without issue or lineal heirs then living. Such was that will, and that it presents a very powerful case in favor of an estate in fee, defeasible on the contingency of death without leaving children, cannot be doubted or denied.

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Bluebook (online)
7 S.E. 286, 81 Ga. 120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matthews-v-hudson-ga-1888.