McDowell Estate

29 Pa. D. & C.2d 469
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County
DecidedMarch 18, 1963
DocketNo. 2; no. 779
StatusPublished

This text of 29 Pa. D. & C.2d 469 (McDowell Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDowell Estate, 29 Pa. D. & C.2d 469 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1963).

Opinions

Bolger, J.,

Exceptions have been filed to the adjudication confirming the final account of the trustees at the termination of the trust. The adjudication awarded three-fourths of principal to Charles McDowell Morris, and one-fourth in equal shares to Francis Warren McDowell, 3rd, and Mary Catherine McDowell Lund. All of the distributees have filed exceptions.

Testator died in 1907 survived by his widow and five children. The widow died May 27, 1922, and all of the five children are now deceased.

By his will and codicil, he directed that his residuary estate be held in trust, one-third of the income to be paid to his wife for life and the remaining two-thirds to be divided equally among his five children. Upon the death of his wife, the share of income she had received is to be added to the shares distributable to his children.

Testator in paragraph fourth directed the payment of the income equally among his children during the term of their natural lives “. . . and if any of my said [471]*471children shall die before or after the decease of my said wife leaving a child or children surviving, such child or children to receive, share and share alike, the share of income and interest that the parent would have taken if living, until such child or children shall respectively arrive at the age of twenty-one years, and then to pay the principal producing the income to which said child or children are respectively entitled, to such child or children; but if any of my children should die leaving no child or children to survive him or her, then to pay the income to which such child or children would have been entitled equally to my surviving children during their respective lives, and at their death share and share alike to their child or children until such child or children shall respectively arrive at the age of twenty-one years, and then to pay the principal producing the income to which such child or children are respectively entitled to such child or children.”

Paragraph fifth of the will repeats the same general language with reference to the remaining two-thirds of income. The codicil directed that if any of testator’s children died childless, one-third of the income he or she had received was to be paid to the survivor spouse, if any, for life. In the codicil he also gave $1,000 in trust for the benefit of his then only living grandchild and made a similar provision for each after-born grandchild.

Of the five children who survived testator and his wife, a daughter, Anna, died in 1927 without children; a son, Charles, died in 1942 without children. F. Warren McDowell, another son, died in 1945 survived by two children, Francis Warren, 3rd, and Mary Catherine. By adjudication dated June 4, 1945, the opinion writer, as auditing judge, awarded one-third of the estate outright to the two children and two-thirds back to the surviving trustee. In doing so, we accepted the request of counsel. There was no objection to it and no [472]*472exceptions were taken. We are now convinced that this was error in part.

The next child to die was Joseph, who was survived by his widow and no issue. Following his death and by adjudication dated April 1, 1949, the entire principal then remaining was awarded further in trust for the benefit of the last surviving child and Joseph’s widow. Exceptions were taken to this adjudication and dismissed by the court en banc in an opinion reported in 68 D. & C. 191. Joseph’s widow died in 1959 and on October 5, 1961, Rebekah McDowell Morris, the last surviving child of the testator, died survived by one son, Charles. It is thus apparent that there are three living grandchildren of testator, two of them the chilren of F. Warren, and one of them the child of Rebekah. Warren’s two children claim that they are entitled to the balance of principal as per capita remaindermen with Rebekah’s son, Charles, while the latter claims that he is entitled to the entire balance of principal.

The learned auditing judge in a carefully considered adjudication determined that testator’s general intention was to direct a stirpital distribution of all of the principal to and among his grandchildren. He very properly found that testator did not intend that the accumulated shares of such children as died without issue should be paid to the child of the last surviving life tenant, citing Vandergrift Estate, 406 Pa. 14; Galli’s Estate, 340 Pa. 561, and Fox’s Estate, 222 Pa. 108. The auditing judge correctly found that the words “survivor” or “surviving” in this will must be understood to mean “other” where in any other sense it would lead to an intestacy or an inequality of those standing in the same degree of relationship to testator or to a distribution not in accordance with the general scheme of the will in its entirety. As stated in the adjudication, had the parents of the living grandchildren been the first to die, it would be a strained and [473]*473erroneous construction to conclude that there would have been an intestacy upon the death of the survivor of the other three children who were childless.

We do not concur, however, in the interpretation of the auditing judge that distribution of principal was to be stirpital insofar as it relates to the principal which supported the income paid to the children who died without children. In the first , place, it is obvious that testator never intended his children to receive principal. If a literal construction advanced by Charles McDowell Morris were given to testator’s words, the grandchildren, in order to take principal, would have been obliged to be minors at the time of their parents’ death since the substitutionary gift was primarily income during minority and then principal as each attained age 21. Such a construction is absurd: Thomas Wolstenholme Estate, 26 D. & C. 2d 610, 409 Pa. 380.

The will clearly stated that upon the death of a child leaving children, that share of principal supporting the income the deceased child had enjoyed was to go immediately to his child or children as income if under 21, and as principle if over 21 — a stirpital distribution, and the auditing judge so found.

It would appear at first reading that testator intended a stirpital distribution of all of the remainder. Indeed such an interpretation was presented to the court in 1945, and although all parties in interest had notice, there was no objection and an award was made of one-third of corpus instead of one-fifth. This interpretation must have influenced the learned auditing judge. After carefully scrutinizing the will, the design of testator becomes apparent and a different disposition of the shares of children dying childless is indicated. We believe that testator intended the income of such share to be added cumulatively until the death of his last child. The will in paragraph fifth states as follows: “But if any of my children should die leaving no child [474]*474or children to survive him or her, then to pay the income to which such child or children would have been entitled equally to my surviving children during their respective lives and at their death share and share alike to their child or children . . . (income during minority) and then to pay the principal producing the income to Which such child or children are respectively entitled to such child or children.” (Italics supplied.)

When the testator stated “and at their death”, and later to “their child or children”, it appears that he intended this part of corpus to be distributed per capita to and among his grandchildren.

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Bluebook (online)
29 Pa. D. & C.2d 469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdowell-estate-paorphctphilad-1963.