Rayborn v. Grand Lodge

234 Ill. App. 183, 1924 Ill. App. LEXIS 262
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 17, 1924
DocketGen. No. 7,723
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 234 Ill. App. 183 (Rayborn v. Grand Lodge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rayborn v. Grand Lodge, 234 Ill. App. 183, 1924 Ill. App. LEXIS 262 (Ill. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Shurtleff

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a decree of the Morgan county court for the sale of certain lands to pay debts, in the estate of Henry S. Rayborn, deceased. Henry S. Rayborn died testate in said county on the 24th day of April, A. D. 1923, leaving a last will and. testament, the provisions of which were substantially as follows: In the first clause of the will, testator directs the payment of all of his just debts, by his executrix, as soon as conveniently may be done after his decease. By the second clause, testator devises and bequeaths a life estate to his widow, Ida E. Rayborn, in and to all of his property, real, personal or mixed, of whatsoever description and wherever situated, the income and proceeds thereof to he used and enjoyed by her during the term of her natural life. By the third clause of the will the testator devises a farm of 208% acres of land to The Farmers State Bank and Trust Company of Jacksonville, Illinois, in trust, subject to the life estate of the widow, Ida E. Rayborn, to rent, manage and control the said farm, collect the rents therefrom and after deducting the charges and expenses of said trust to pay the net income thereof annually or semiannually, if circumstances will permit, to his daughter and only child, Ethel May Rayborn, for and during her natural life. There are some further provisions attached to this trust, that the said income shall he paid to his daughter personally and not upon the order or direction of his daughter or any husband she may marry, nor to any other person, and the testator expressly directs that said trust estate shall in no event he subject to any judgment, execution, conveyance or transfer, nor he incumbered in any manner, nor be liable to alienation on account of any debt or obligation of his said daughter. One hundred sixty acres of said lands had been conveyed to the testator by a deed from "William L. Kennedy and wife, dated February 20, 1891, and will be called the “Kennedy Farm” in this opinion. The 48% acres were purchased at a later date and became a part of the farm.

The testator further provided in the third clause of the will, that after the death of his daughter, Ethel May Eayborn, said trustee, or the successor in trust, should sell the lands and divide the proceeds equally between the children of said Ethel May Eayborn, and any child or children of a deceased child should take equally its parent’s share.

The clause further provides that in case his said daughter shall leave no descendant or descendants her surviving, the proceeds from the sale of said lands shall be divided into two equal parts, and that said trustee shall pay one-half thereof to the Odd Fellows ’ Orphan Home for Children at Lincoln, Illinois, and the other one-half to the Odd Fellows’ Home for the Aged at Mattoon, Illinois, as a permanent endowment fund for each of said institutions, such bequests to be called and so designated on the book of said institutions, respectively, the “Henry S. and Ida E. Eayborn Fund.”

By the fourth clause of the will the said daughter, Ethel May Eayborn, subject to the life estate to the widow, was made the residuary legatee and devisee of testator’s estate, and by the will the widow, Ida E. Eayborn, was nominated as executrix, without bonds, and in case of her death, declination or inability to act, the daughter, Ethel May Eayborn, was named executrix with the like request that she be not required to give any bond.

Testator died, leaving him surviving his said widow and daughter, Ethel May Eayborn, a single lady about thirty-five years of age, and no other heirs. The will was duly proved and on July 21, 1923, Ethel M. Eayborn duly qualified as executrix of the said will and letters testamentary were issued to her.

On the first day of October, A. D. 1923, the executrix filed an inventory in said estate, showing personalty to the amount of $518 and listing and inventorying the said “Kennedy Farm” of 208% acres, valued at $20,850, and inventorying three other tracts of real estate, namely: a lot in the City of Jacksonville valued at $3,500: a piece of land in the City of Jacksonville valued at $5,000, and 138% acres of land in Greene county, Illinois, valued at $5,540, making a total value of estate, as inventoried, of $14,558 in addition to the “Kennedy Farm” lands. There was an allowance made to the widow, amounting to $1,500, about which no question is raised in these proceedings. The executrix paid various items of debts, claims and demands against the estate, amounting to the sum of $1,342.58, and filed her claim for the amount, which was allowed by the court November 6, 1923, and there is no contention over this claim.

On the same day the widow, Ida E. Rayborn, filed a claim against the estate, amounting to $17,392.45, and this claim was approved by the executrix and with her consent allowed on the 6th day of November, A. D. 1923. Both claims were allowed as of the sixth class.

On the 21st day of November, 1923, appellee, as executrix, filed her petition in the county court of Morgan county to sell real estate belonging to said estate to pay the debts of the estate. The petition recites the proceedings had in said estate and the issuing of letters testamentary to appellee, the allowance of said claims, the appraisement bill and the making of a full report to the court as to the condition of said estate. The petition sets out and describes the “Kennedy Farm” lands, as owned by the testator at the time of his death, and prays for the sale of said lands and mentions no other lands. The petition sets out the deficiency of personal assets to pay said debts. The petition recites the letters testamentary, the inventory, the appraisement bill and the just and true account of the personal estate and debts, and refers to them and the record of them and enlarges the allegations of the petition, as said instruments “will more fully appear.”

On the 27th day of November, 1923, appellants filed two instruments in said cause, entering their appearance : one a general and special demurrer to the petition, demurring specially on the ground that appellee had not made any just and true account of the personal estate and debts of said decedent to the county court and had made no such report and none is found in the record. At the same time appellants presented to the court objections to the claim allowed in favor of Ida E. Rayborn in the sum of $17,392.45, and various grounds of objection were stated in writing. It was objected that the claim was without merit and that “the basis for the allowance was for the purpose of selling certain real estate of which testator died seized. ’ ’

Appellants further objected that by division C of the third clause of the will said lands were devised in trust, and that the purpose of the allowance of the claim and the proceedings to sell real estate to pay debts was for the sole and only purpose of devesting appellants of and from the benefits of said will. A motion was made by appellants to set aside the said claim of Ida E. Rayborn. This motion was set for hearing on December 3, 1923, and all parties being present Ida E. Rayborn, the claimant, joined issue on the motion and consented to submit said cause to the court for hearing on the 29th day of December, A. D. 1923. The cause was adjourned to December 31 when the hearing was had. The hearing was preceded by a stipulation stated by the court:

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Related

Heiser v. McClallen
141 N.E.2d 883 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1957)
Farmers State Bank & Trust Co. v. Rayborn
238 Ill. App. 542 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1925)
Rayborn v. Farmers State Bank
238 Ill. App. 482 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1925)

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Bluebook (online)
234 Ill. App. 183, 1924 Ill. App. LEXIS 262, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rayborn-v-grand-lodge-illappct-1924.