O'Neall v. Her

236 N.W. 890, 254 Mich. 631, 1931 Mich. LEXIS 989
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedJune 1, 1931
DocketDocket No. 90, Calendar No. 35,501.
StatusPublished

This text of 236 N.W. 890 (O'Neall v. Her) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Neall v. Her, 236 N.W. 890, 254 Mich. 631, 1931 Mich. LEXIS 989 (Mich. 1931).

Opinion

Butzel, C. J.

Friderike Her, testatrix, was first married to Conrad Rieboldt and bore unto him three children; Elizabeth, who is now known as Alvina O’Neall, and is the plaintiff herein, Frederick, who died, leaving three children, and Dorothy, who is known as Dorothy Her, which name she assumed. Plaintiff was born in 1875. Her parents were divorced the year following her birth, and she was taken to the home of Carl Bartell and wife, who named her Alvina Bartell, although they never adopted her. She remained with them until she reached the age of 17, when she married a Mr. Bishop, and subsequently moved to Chicago.

In 1878 testatrix remarried and became the wife of Adam Her of Grand Rapids. In 1888 or thereabouts, plaintiff visited the Her home over the Christmas period, but after several weeks, plaintiff’s mother, the testatrix, told her that there were too many in the family, that some one would have to go to work, and plaintiff thereupon returned to the Bartell home where she remained until her marriage. Bishop died in 1916, and in 1924 plaintiff married William O’Neall, of Chicago, where she now resides.

Plaintiff’s mother, after her marriage to Adam Her, became the mother of five more children, four of whom are now living. They are Charles F. Her, Mamie Anderson, Minnie Woolson, and Clara *633 Mackey, who, together with plaintiff’s sister, Dorothy, are the defendants in the present case. Dorothy Rieboldt always remained with her mother, became a member of the Her household, and was known as Dorothy Her and treated by Adam Her the same as his own children.

At the time of plaintiff’s birth and for many years thereafter, .the Rieboldt and the Her families were poor and it was economic pressure that prompted plaintiff’s mother to give up her child in the first instance and let her go to strangers. The Her family worked hard; Dorothy helped her father in the meat business; the mother took in washings; and it was through frugality and hard work that Adam and Friderike Her together accumulated an estate of $30,000 or thereabouts. The testimony shows that after plaintiff was first placed with others, her mother occasionally saw her in Grand Rapids, but after she married Bishop and moved to Chicago, all association ceased. For 33 years prior to the execution of the will in question in this case, plaintiff and testatrix had not met. They did not correspond with one another, nor did they even exchange an occasional card. They both acted as if they were permanently and absolutely estranged from one another. They did meet subsequent to the execution of the will, but it was not changed.

On or about the 8th day of May, 1929, Adam and Friderike Her called upon an attorney in Grand Rapids and instructed him to draw wills that were almost identical. Adam Her executed his will on the 8th day of May, 1929, and testatrix signed hers the following day. In neither will are either plaintiff or the children of Frederick Rieboldt specifically mentioned. Their names are omitted. Each will provides that the property be trusted to Charles F. *634 Her for the support of the surviving spouse, upon whose death the property is to go to the children, who are, however, specifically named in another clause. The pertinent provisions in the will of Adam Her are as follows:

“ (c) Upon my death if my wife does not survive me, after satisfying the provisions hereinbefore set forth, I direct my trustee to divide the'balance of this trust fund into as many portions of equal value as I have children, whose names I have hereinafter mentioned and to dispose of the same as hereinafter provided.
“(d) I have the following children. Dorothy Her, Charles F. Her, Mamie Anderson, Minnie Woolson and Clara Mackey.
“It is my will and I wish that Dorothy Her shall be considered in every respect as my child, and no questions shall be raised in the distribution of the share bequeath to her by reason of any illegality of adoption, or any other question affecting her parentage, and shall be treated as though she was a child of the blood, in the distribution as herein provided for.
“(e) When my trustee shall have converted by sale or otherwise all of the estate into money, which it is my will and I direct shall be done with all convenient speed, but not at the sacrifice of any value by reason of haste in such conversion, that when said estate shall be so converted by my said trustee, the said trustee is hereby directed to pay each child in sub-paragraph “d” named, an equal proportion thereof, that is to say, the said trust estate shall be divided into five parts, and I give, devise and bequeath to Dorothy Her, and to her heirs and assigns forever one-fifth (1/5) part of the entire of said trust estate.
“To Charles F. Her and to his heirs and assigns forever one-fifth (1/5) part of the entire of said trust estate.
*635 “To Mamie Anderson and to her heirs and assigns forever one-fifth (1/5) part of the entire of said trust estate.
“To Minnie Woolson and to her heirs and assigns forever one-fifth (1/5) part of the entire of said trust estate.
“To Clara Mackey and to her heirs and assigns forever one-fifth (1/5) part of the entire of said trust estate.”

Testatrix’s will is similar to Adam’s in all respects, except that the word “husband” is substituted for “wife” and the short clause, providing that Dorothy Her is to be considered in every respect as a child, is omitted.

Adam predeceased Friderike, and upon her death and the filing of her will for probate, plaintiff filed a petition in the probate court for Kent county asking that she be given the same share of the estate of testatrix as if the latter had died intestate. She based her application upon 3 Comp. Laws 1929, § 15550, which provides that a child shall be entitled to such a share if it appears that such an omission from the will was not intentional but made by mistake or accident. Upon appeal to the circuit court from the order denying the petition by the probate court, the trial judge refused to hold that the omission of plaintiff’s name from her mother’s will was unintentional and to direct a verdict. He submitted the question to the jury, who found against plaintiff’s contentions.

Plaintiff has appealed to this court, the sole question raised being whether the lower court erred in not holding that'“the omission was by mistake or accident and was not intentional.” Our attention is called to clause “c” wherein the testatrix states that her estate is to be divided into as many portions of equal value as she has children, whose names are *636 thereinafter mentioned. The will then proceeds to name the children, but omits that of plaintiff. It must be noted, however, that a subsequent clause of the will provides that a share of one-fifth each shall go respectively to each of those five children who are specifically named.

Plaintiff relies on the case of Bachinski v. Bachinski’s Estate, 152 Mich. 693 (125 Am. St. Rep.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
236 N.W. 890, 254 Mich. 631, 1931 Mich. LEXIS 989, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oneall-v-her-mich-1931.