Ogle v. Barker

63 N.E.2d 426, 116 Ind. App. 250, 1945 Ind. App. LEXIS 204
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 9, 1945
DocketNo. 17,407.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 63 N.E.2d 426 (Ogle v. Barker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ogle v. Barker, 63 N.E.2d 426, 116 Ind. App. 250, 1945 Ind. App. LEXIS 204 (Ind. Ct. App. 1945).

Opinions

Draper, J.

William H. Scott died testate on December 25, 1943, leaving surviving him his widow, Sarah J. Scott, and his grandson, the appellant. By the terms of his will he bequeathed all his personal property to one Paul Barker, a nephew, subject to a life estate *252 therein to his widow, and subject to a gift of furniture of the value of $25 to be taken by appellant at the death of the widow. The will named no residuary legatee. He had no devisable real estate. Paul Barker died in 1941, so that William H. Scott died intestate as to all his personal property except the life interest therein of his widow and the small gift to appellant. The widow died January 12, 1944, without having elected to take under the law instead of under the will.

The appellant contends that under these circumstances the widow was entitled to no part of the personal property other than her life estate therein. The appellees contend she was entitled to one-half of the property. The court found that she was entitled to one-sixth.

The involved statute, being § 6-2332, Burns’ 1933, was passed in 1907, and reads as follows:

“Whenever any personal or real property be bequeathed to any wife, or a pecuniary or other provision be made for her in the will of her late husband, such wife shall take under such will of her late husband, and she shall receive nothing from her husband’s estate by reason of any law of descent of the state of Indiana, unless otherwise expressly provided in said will, unless she shall make her election to retain the rights in her husband’s estate given to her under the laws of the state of Indiana, which election shall be made in the manner hereinafter provided.” (Our emphasis.)

Under § 6-2320, Burns’ 1933, if a man dies intestate, leaving a widow and one child, each take an equal share of the personal property. Under § 6-2302, Burns’ 1933, the grandson takes the share of his deceased father or mother. Therefore, had Mr. Scott died intestate, or had the widow elected to take under the law, she would have taken an equal *253 share with the grandson. She did not so elect, and not having done so, she is conclusively presumed to have-accepted the provisions made for her in the will. Easterday v. Easterday (1938), 105 Ind. App. 80, 10 N. E. (2d) 764.

The language of § 6-2332, swpra, seems to be plain and unambiguous, but the appellees, insisting that the statute applies only to property devised or bequeathed, and not to property as to which the testator dies intestate, rely upon the case of Johnson v. Snyder (1924), 82 Ind. App. 215, 142 N. E. 877, to sustain them in that contention. In that case the testator left a widow and collateral heirs, and died intestate as to certain property. He left no- child nor any descendant of a child, as here, nor any father or mother. Applying the appropriate statutes, and recognizing several previous opinions of the Supreme Court, it was held, and we think correctly, that in that situation only the widow could take under the laws of descent, and that the statute requiring election had no application to a case where a surviving wife is entitled under the law to the whole estate. The court says: “We hold that section 3045, supra (the present § 6-2332, Burns’ 1933), has no application to property of which the decedent (in that case) died intestate, that such property went to the widow ...” That was true in that case because the ■statute requiring election could have no application to property of which the decedent died intestate, when he died leaving a widow who under the law took all. As pointed out in O’Harrow et al. v. Whitney et al. (1882), 85 Ind. 140, a case cited in the Johnson case, “An election presupposes a choice between inconsistent rights. ... If the law casts the entire estate upon the widow, the acceptance of a portion of it under a will would not preclude her from claiming the residue under the law, *254 for the obvious reason that she has made no election between inconsistent rights. The acceptance, under a will, of that which belongs to a widow by the law, is no election at all; such acceptance is an idle ceremony that in no manner precludes her from claiming her rights under the law.”

In the case at bar the widow was not entitled under the law to the whole estate, because the grandson was capable of inheriting along with her. The will not expressly providing otherwise, she was entitled to take the substantial provision made for her in the will, or to take under the law an equal share with the grandson. She could not take both. She had a choice of inconsistent rights. Having elected, by force of the statute, to take under the will, by the plain language of § 6-2332, supra,, she “shall receive nothing from her husband’s estate by reason of any law of descent of the state of Indiana.”

But the appellees insist that the failure of the widow to take under the law cannot increase the amount which the grandson would be entitled to, for he could not take more than half, as provided by § 6-2320, supra; that no other could take, since the widow was living, and if she cannot take, no one capable of taking remains, and the half which she would otherwise receive must therefore escheat under § 6-2349, Burns’ 1933, to the state of Indiana.

That contention was disposed of in the case of Collins v . Collins (1891), 126 Ind. 559, 25 N. E. 704, 28 N. E. 190. In that case the testator died intestate as to certain property, leaving surviving him his widow and the descendants of one child. The widow elected to take under the will, and the court was called upon to determine what interest, if any, she took in the prop *255 erty as to which the testator died intestate. The election statute then in effect read as follows:

“If lands be devised to a woman, or a pecuniary or other provision be made for her, by the will of her late husband, in lieu of her right to lands of her husband, she shall make an election whether she will take the lands so devised or the provision so made, or ivhether she will retain the right to one-third of the land óf her late husband; but she shall not be entitled to both, unless it plainly appear by the will to have been the intention of the testator that she should have such lands, or pecuniary or other provision thus devised or bequeathed, in addition to her right in the lands of her husband.” (Our emphasis.)

The court in that case applied the plain language of that statute, and held that by taking under the will, the widow forfeited her right to the one-third but that she still retained her interest under the law in excess of one-third, since under the statute she was forbidden only to take both the one-third and the provision made for her by the will. In this case the statute provides if she takes under the will, she shall take nothing from her husband’s estate by reason of any law of descent, and applying the rule of the Collins case we hold that she takes nothing. In the course of its opinion in that case the court says:

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Bluebook (online)
63 N.E.2d 426, 116 Ind. App. 250, 1945 Ind. App. LEXIS 204, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ogle-v-barker-indctapp-1945.