Parker v. Butler

27 N.Y.S. 805, 83 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 240, 58 N.Y. St. Rep. 486, 76 Hun 240
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 27 N.Y.S. 805 (Parker v. Butler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parker v. Butler, 27 N.Y.S. 805, 83 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 240, 58 N.Y. St. Rep. 486, 76 Hun 240 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1894).

Opinion

VAN BRUNT, P. J.

This action was brought to procure a construction of the will and codicil of Dr. Willard Parker, who died in New York city on the 25th of April, 1884, which will and codicil were admitted to probate on the 31st of May, 1884. The will and codicil in question were executed by the testator, respectively, on the 5th of January, 1883, and the 11th of January, 1883. Some time prior to the execution of the will and codicil in question, the testator and his brother, Grenville Parker, were jointly interested in a large amount of West Virginia land. The said Grenville Parker died intestate on the 10th of May, 1881, leaving, him surviving, his widow, Eliza A. Parker, and his daughter, Emily T. Parker, his only child and heir at law. In July, 1881, the said Eliza A. Parker was duly appointed sole administratrix of the estate of said Grenville Parker by the courts of West Virginia, he being at his decease a resident of said state. On the 14th of February, 1882, an agreement was entered into between said Eliza A. Parker and Emily T. Parker, and Eliza A. Parker, as administrator, etc., and the testator, for the sale to said testator of all the right, title, interest, and estate which said Grenville Parker had owned or possessed in and to said lands for the sum of $18,000, which was to be paid out of the first moneys received by him from the sale and disposal of the lands, properties, and interests described in said contract. The contract also contained a clause giving said testator the right to make payment of the consideration money without waiting for a sale of the lands, as provided in said contract. The testator had also other properties at West Virginia, and a considerable estate in New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. By the general scheme of the will the testator divided all his property into two general classes, each distinct from the other,—his West Virginia property, of every sort whatsoever, treated in the sixth clause, and his general estate considered in the other portions of the will. The said sixth clause, so far as it is necessary to recite the same for the purposes of -this opinion, is as follows:

“Sixth.. As X am now owner of various lands, and contracts for the purchase or sale of lands, leases, mortgages, and equitable interests and rights in and to lands, situated at West Virginia, and as I may hereafter acquire other such lands in said state before my death, and as I wish to make a special disposition of the same, different from that which I hereafter make of my other estate, now, therefore, I hereby give, devise, and bequeath, all the property and estate, real and personal, above described, which I shall own or be entitled to dispose of at my death, unto my son-in-law, Benjamin F. Butler, ot Scarsdale, Westchester county, and state of New York, as trustee in and upon the following trusts and conditions, that is to say.”

[807]*807Then follows a power to sell, to lease, to collect rents and Issues, to discharge taxes and assessments, to pay for insurance, to erect and repair buildings, to sink mines and construct roads, bridges, railroads, canals, etc., to purchase adverse rights or claims, and to purchase adjoining lands. Power is also given, for the purpose of raising money for any of the above objects, to mortgage said lands, or any part of them, from time to time; and the trustee is authorized, if there be any surplus, whether of income or of proceeds of sale or of insurance, after satisfying the purposes mentioned in said clause, to distribute the same in certain proportions. By his codicil to said will the testator provided as follows:

“First. Inasmuch as the property disposed of in the sixth clause of said will is intended to include, among other things, all rights which I may have in, or in relation to, certain lands and premises situated in the state of West Virginia which were formerly owned by me in common with my deceased brother, Grenville Parker, his interest in which said lands his widow (both in her individual right and as his administratrix) and his only surviving daughter have, by an instrument duly executed between us, and bearing date the fourteenth day of February, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, agreed to sell and convey to. me (with other property) for the agreed price of $18,000, now, therefore, to prevent any misunderstanding in relation thereto, I hereby direct that the trustee named in the said sixth clause of my said will, after paying, out of the proceeds of the sales of the trust property in said clause devised to him, such taxes, assessments, or other charges or incumbrances as he may think proper to be first paid thereout, shall use and apply the next moneys received by him from the said trust property (whether from rents, proceeds of sales, or otherwise) in and towards the payment and satisfaction of the said sum of eighteen thousand dollars, or so much thereof as shall then remain unpaid, according to the provisions of the above-mentioned agreement; and I hereby direct that, if my said brother’s interest in so much of said, lands as are in West Virginia shall not have been already conveyed to me prior to my death, such conveyance shall be made to the trustee named in said sixth clause, or to his successors in the trust, he and they being hereby designated as the persons entitled to demand such conveyance under said agreement.
“Second. And inasmuch as I have also, within a few years last past, expended sundry sums, amounting in the aggregate to $30,000 or more, in and about the management and preservation of my said properties in West Virginia, by reason whereof my general estate has been diminished by that amount, now, therefore, I do hereby further direct that, the said trustee named in the said sixth clause of my said will, after he shall have paid in full the $18,000 mentioned in the next preceding clause of this codicil, (or so much thereof as shall remain unpaid at my death,) shall use and apply the next moneys received by him from the said trust property (whether from rents, proceeds of sales, or otherwise) in and towards refunding to my executors the sum of thirty thousand dollars aforesaid, which shall thereupon be and become part of my personal estate; and, if the said' trustee shall not so refund that sum on or before the expiration of two years after my death, then he shall also pay interest on the same, or on so much thereof as shall then remain unpaid, from that date until paid, at the rate of five per cent, per annum; but if, before my death, I shall receive from my said property in West Virginia any sum or sums (over and above the current expenses of preserving and maintaining the same) more than sufficient to satisfy my obligations under the above-mentioned agreement relating to the interest of my deceased brother, Grenville Parker, then, the excess over that amount so received by me shall go to diminish the sum of $30,000 which the said trustee is to refund to my executor, as in this clause is provided.
“Third. I direct that no distribution of the proceeds of the property devised or bequeathed in the said sixth clause of my said will shall be made to any of my descendants, as in said sixth clause provided, until the two sums mentioned in the first and second clauses of this codicil are first paid; but nothing herein contained shall interfere with the discretion given to the said [808]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 N.Y.S. 805, 83 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 240, 58 N.Y. St. Rep. 486, 76 Hun 240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parker-v-butler-nysupct-1894.