Parker's Executors v. Moore

25 N.J. Eq. 228
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedOctober 15, 1874
StatusPublished

This text of 25 N.J. Eq. 228 (Parker's Executors v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parker's Executors v. Moore, 25 N.J. Eq. 228 (N.J. Ct. App. 1874).

Opinion

The Chakcelloe.

The question presented for consideration is, whether the ■testator’s daughters are entitled to possession of the corpus of the funds from which the interest bequeathed to them is to be derived, especially as to the legacies of specific sums of money. It is urged, that although, perhaps, a distinction may be made between the legacies given in the residuary section and those of specified sums, yet they are all specific. These legacies are not specific, but are all of them general. "Those given by the sections other than the residuary, are legacies of specific sums of money, but they are general legacies, nevertheless. Roper on Legacies 202; Sparrow v. Josselyn, 16 Beav. 135. The testator evidently, in his designation of them in the residuary section as specific ” legacies, used the term with reference to the fact that they were legacies of spe■cified sums of money. Such a reference will not give them [234]*234any other character than that which would otherwise have-been given to them by the established rules of construction.. The legacies given out of the residuum, are also general, and not specific. Roper on Legacies 242.

It is insisted on behalf of the daughters, that they are entitled to the funds from.which the interest given to them is to-be derived, subject only to the necessity of giving security to-the persons in remainder, in ease real ground of apprehension of waste of the corpus is shown to exist. To maintain this position, they rely on the language of the bequests. It appears to me, however, that the terms of those bequests lead to the contrary conclusion. The bequests of specific sums-under consideration, are, it will have been observed, in substantially the same language. In the case of Mrs. Freeman,, after stating the amount of advances made to the legatee, the testator says : “ In addition thereto, I bequeath to her the-sum of $50,000, the interest of which shall be paid to her-during her life, and the principal to her children at her-decease,” In the residuary section he saj's: “ As to all the rest and residue of my estate, real and personal, I desire-that it shall be equally divided between my children, Mary Moore, Euphemia Grubb, John Brown Parker, Marcia Freeman, Thomas B. Parker,. Virginia, Marie, and EmelineJohnston, charging each of them with the advancements I have hereinbefore set forth as having been made by me to-them ; it being expressly to be understood that these residuary - bequests to my said children, Mary, Euphemia, EmelineThomas B., Marcia, and Virginia, are to them for life, remainder to their children, after their death, and with the-same conditions, trusts, and limitations as are coupled with the specific legacies to each of them; and in this calculation I. allow to my daughter Mary, $2000 for education of her daughter, and improvements on the Bertern farm ; and if any of my said grandchildren should die intestate, and without issue, before their mother, the share of such shall go to their-surviving brothers and sisters, if they leave any, and if al the said children be dead at the death of the parent to whom. [235]*235the interest is payable, then the said legacy or legacies shall lapse into the residue of my estate.” From the circumstance that these specific sums and the shares in the residuum are, by the terms of the will, given directly to those who are to have only the interest of them, it is argued that the testator intended that they should have possession of the funds, and that the words “to be paid” are, in this connection, equivalent to the words “ to go to,” or “ to be received by.” But the language of the tenth section, “ the interest of which shall be paid to her during her life, and the principal to her children • at her decease,” provides for payment in both eases, as well to Mrs. Freeman during her life, as to her children at her death. The language of the other bequests of specific sums is, as before remarked, substantially the same. The testator gives to his son, Thomas B., a share of the residue by the same terms, and together with his other son and his daughters named in the residuary section. As to Thomas, by the ninth section, he makes the executors trustees of the $50,000 given for his benefit in that section, bequeathing that money to them in trust for him. He, undoubtedly, did not mean that the share of Thomas in the residuum, notwithstanding the gift is to him, should indeed go to or be received by him, but manifestly, that it should, as he expressly says it shall, be held on the same “ conditions, trusts, and limitations ” as the $50,000 mentioned in the ninth section. That the testator used the word paid in the sections in which the legacies of' specific sums are given to his daughters, intelligently, and with an appreciation of its exact signification, appears from the language employed in the residuary section. He there says that if any of the children of the residuary legatees be dead at the death of the parent to whom “ the interest is pay- • able,” &c. He had made no mention of the interest on the ■ shares of the residuary legatees; he had merely said that those residuary legatees were to be to his children there - named, for life, with remainder to their children after their death ; and “ with the same conditions, trusts and limitations ■ as are coupled with ” the legacies of specific sums. The gift. [236]*236of the interest of a sum of money does not pass the whole fund itself, if there are words used to confine it to a life estate. Clough v. Wynne, 2 Madd. 188, 439; Roper on Legacies 1476. Says Roper, p. 1478: “But, notwithstanding, asa general rule, the gift of interest and dividends standing by itself, is a gift of the corpus, yet, if, from the nature of the subject, or the context of the will, it appear that the produce or interest of the fund only was intended for the legatee, the gift of the interest will not pass the principal.” Under this will these legatees to whom the interest is given for life, cannot claim the possession of the fund on the ground that the gift of the interest passes the principal. The construction put upon the sections under consideration by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in Parker’s Appeal, 61 Penn. 478, so far as it rests on the existence- of the general rule above alluded to, ■cannot be maintained, for that rule is not applicable to these legacies. This case differs from Rowe’s Ex’rs v. White, 1 C. E. Green 411, for there a legacy was given to the legatee, with a limitation over on a definite failure of issue. The ruling of this court in Jones’ Ex’rs v. Stites, 4 C. E. Green 324, has been misapprehended in applying it to this case. It is insisted that the language of the court there, “ when specific chattels or a specific sum of money are given for life, or absolutely, subject to a limitation upon the happening of a certain contingency, the chattels must be delivered, or the money paid to the legatee, and at. his death, or upon the contingency, will go to the legatee in remainder,” applied to this ■case, would give to the daughters the possession of the specified sums bequeathed by the will under consideration. But here, the specified sum is not given for life, but the interest of it only.

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Bluebook (online)
25 N.J. Eq. 228, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parkers-executors-v-moore-njch-1874.