Pedro v. January

494 P.2d 868, 261 Or. 582, 51 A.L.R. 3d 1235, 1972 Ore. LEXIS 334
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 9, 1972
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 494 P.2d 868 (Pedro v. January) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pedro v. January, 494 P.2d 868, 261 Or. 582, 51 A.L.R. 3d 1235, 1972 Ore. LEXIS 334 (Or. 1972).

Opinion

HOLMAN, J.

This is a declaratory judgment proceeding brought to determine the status of the parties in relation to the sale and removal of standing timber from real property.

Joseph and Rita Silva Vey were husband and wife and for many years they operated a large sheep ranch in Union, Morrow, and Umatilla counties in the eastern part of the state. The manner in which they held their real property, as between themselves, is not clear. However, this is immaterial in view of the fact that in 1934 they executed parallel wills. Joseph died in 1936; Rita, in 1939. The wills provided that the three daughters of the testators should each have a life estate in an undivided one-third interest in the testators’ real property. The wills then provided:

“Subject to the provisions hereinabove contained in this will, I give and devise to such of the children of my daughter, Mary M. Pedro, as shall survive her, an undivided one-third interest in and to the real property mentioned in paragraph Y of this will; to such of the children of my daughter, Rose Monese, as shall survive her, an undivided one-third interest in and to the real property mentioned in paragraph Y of this will; and to such of the children of my daughter, Elizabeth Underhill, as shall survive her, an undivided one-third interest in and to the real property mentioned in paragraph Y of this will, the descendants of any deceased daughter to take by right of representation, but if any of my said three daughters shall die without issue surviving them, then the property herein devised to such issue shall descend to my other grandchildren by right of representation.”

*588 In 1941, the Circuit Court of Umatilla County-issued a decree of partition, setting aside to Mary M. January, formerly Mary M. Pedro, a daughter of the testators, and to her children, one-third of the property subject to the devise, on which parcel stood the timber in question. The decree of partition divested Rose and Elizabeth, the two other children of the testators, and their children of any interest in the property partitioned to Mary and to her children “save and except such future contingent rights or interests as the children [grandchildren of the testators] * * * may have under the terms, provisions and conditions of the last will and testaments of Joseph Vey, deceased, and Rita Silva Vey, deceased.”

In 1964, Mary and her three children, Joseph Pedro, William Pedro, and Mary Ann Robinson, entered into an agreement to sell the timber standing on the property partitioned to them to defendant Quality Lumber Mills, Inc., of which defendant Oregon-Washington Plywood Company is the successor. The proceeds were to be divided one-fourth each to Mary and to her three children. Thereafter, the purchasers logged timber from the property of the reasonable net value of $123,286.92. Before the completion of the contract, Joseph Pedro, the son of Mary and grandson of the testators, died. By the time he died, Joseph had received $21,204.54 from the timber contract, which left a balance of $9,616.77 attributable to the share he would have received, had he lived, for timber logged subsequent to his death. The purchasers placed the remainder of Joseph’s share in trust pending a determination of the party entitled to the money. Lillian D. *589 Pedro, Joseph’s widow, initiated this proceeding as executrix of his estate and as beneficiary of his will to have herself declared the owner of the funds.

The defendant Delbert L. Pedro is the son of Joseph Pedro by a former wife, and he is a grandchild of Mary and a great-grandchild of the testators. Delbert requested the court to adjudicate his rights in and to the timber and the money in question. He claims to be entitled under the Vey wills to interests identical to those of his father. He asked the trial court to restrain the corporate defendants from further cutting, to order them to account for the timber taken, to adjudicate him the owner of the money held in trust, and to give him such other and further relief as would be equitable.

The trial court held that Mary January was possessed of a life estate in the real property, that her children had contingent remainders therein, and that none of them had a right to sell the timber. However, the court dismissed the proceeding. It ruled that the plaintiffs, the estate of Joseph Pedro, and Joseph’s widow, Lillian, had no interest in either the proceeds or the timber because Joseph’s contingent interest never vested on account of his failure to survive his mother, Mary. The court also held that Delbert, the son of Joseph Pedro, was not entitled under the terms of the will to a contingent interest similar to that of his father. Delbert, Joseph’s estate, and Joseph’s widow, Lillian, all appealed.

The rights of all of the parties are, in large part, dependent upon the nature of the interest, if any, that Delbert Pedro has by the provisions of his great-grandparents’ wills in the property from which the timber was cut. If he has no interest, or if Ms interest *590 is so remotely contingent that it does not justify the intervention of the court for his protection, his appeal is not meritorious, and we must turn to Lillian’s appeal. But if Delbert has an interest sufficient to justify the protection of equity, Lillian’s appeal must fail. A determination of Delbert’s interest depends upon a construction of paragraph VIII of the wills which has heretofore been set forth.

We must first determine the interest that was given to the children of Mary January, formerly Pedro, by the words of the wills which provide, “I give and devise to such of the children of my daughter, Mary M. Pedro, as shall survive her, an undivided one-third interest in and to all real property * * *." Obviously, the children of Mary who survive her cannot be determined until her death. The devise, being in favor of unascertained persons, is contingent. It did not vest at the death of the testator but will vest on the death of Mary, when her children who survive her can be determined. 4A Thompson, Real Property (1961 Replacement) § 1995, pp. 485-487. The contingency has failed as to Joseph, who did not survive his mother, Mary. The contention made by some of the parties that the devise was a vested one subject to be divested is not well taken.

The parties other than Delbert contend that even if the remainders are contingent and not vested, only the living children of Mary or such of them as survive her will take the property; or, if none survive her, the property will descend to the children of the testators’ other daughters. Delbert asserts, to the contrary, that, although he cannot inherit from or through his father in whom no interest vested, he is entitled under the provision of paragraph VIII which states that “* * * *591 the descendants of any deceased daughter to take by right of representation, * * *” to a remainder identical to that which his father had prior to his death.

It is argued by the other parties that Delbert’s taking of any future interest in the property as the result of the phrase, “the descendants of any deceased daughter to take by right of representation,” is inconsistent with and cannot be reconciled with the devise “to such of the children of my daughter, Mary M.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
494 P.2d 868, 261 Or. 582, 51 A.L.R. 3d 1235, 1972 Ore. LEXIS 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pedro-v-january-or-1972.