Roenick v. Dollar Savings & Trust Co.

179 N.E.2d 379, 87 Ohio Law. Abs. 289, 21 Ohio Op. 2d 452, 1960 Ohio App. LEXIS 797
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 19, 1960
DocketNo. 4076
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 179 N.E.2d 379 (Roenick v. Dollar Savings & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roenick v. Dollar Savings & Trust Co., 179 N.E.2d 379, 87 Ohio Law. Abs. 289, 21 Ohio Op. 2d 452, 1960 Ohio App. LEXIS 797 (Ohio Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

Donahue, J.

This is an action for will construction, brought by the plaintiff, who is the daughter of the decedent, James A. Ewing.

This is an appeal on questions of law and fact.

Attorney Ewing’s will was duly admitted to probate, and contained the following provisions in brief:—

Item No. 2 — a bequest to the daughter of all personal effects and $10,000.00 in cash — which have been delivered and paid.

Item No. 3 — a bequest to defendant, Dollar Savings and Trust Company in trust for the son of plaintiff, grandson of deceased, to be used under certain conditions for care and support until he reaches the age of forty. Paragraph six of this item provides as follows:—

“Upon the attainment by my said grandson of the said prescribed age of forty years it is my will and I direct that the entire accumulated assets of my estate, real, personal or mixed property, in the hands of said trustee shall pass to and vest in my said grandson, to be his absolutely and in fee simple, provided that he give and pay to The Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary of The United Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), to The Tabernacle United Presbyterian Church, Youngstown, Ohio, the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), to Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), to Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) and to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), making the first three of said gifts in memory of his great grandparents, J. Calvin Ewing and Eva C. Ewing, the fourth in memory of his great aunt, Margaret Ewing Kelsey, and the fifth in memory of his grandfather, James A. Ewing, and I do so hereby give, devise and bequeath the same to him* to be effective only at such time, and upon such distribution of my entire estate being made the trust herein created shall [291]*291cease and determine and said trustee be released and discharged, upon account, therein and thereof.”

Item No. 4 provides that :

“In the event that my said grandson shall not attain the said prescribed age of forty years it is my will and I direct that my entire estate shall pass to and vest in my said daughter, Mary Ewing Roenick, who was born April 14, 1921, when she is fifty-five years of age and provided that she give and pay to The Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary of The United Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00), to The Tabernacle United Presbyterian Church, Youngstown, Ohio, the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars, to Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), to Yassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00) and to Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00), making the first three of said gifts in memory of her grandparents, J. Calvin Ewing and Eva C. Ewing, the fourth in memory of her aunt, Margaret Ewing Kelsey and the fifth in memory of her father, James A. Ewing.”

Item No. 5 provides for distribution of $10,000.00 to plaintiff’s husband, in the event the grandson and daughter do not reach the prescribed ages, with the balance to go directly to the named charities in specific proportions.

The will was signed and acknowledged on April 3, 1953. Attorney Ewing died on December 24, 1953, less than a year after the will was executed.

It is generally conceded by all counsel that the gift to the charities in Item No. 5 is invalid by reason of the Mortmain Statute, which renders invalid any such bequest where the deceased leaving children dies within a year after making the will.

The all important issue in this case is the interpretation of the sixth paragraph of Item 3 of the will.

Was this bequest by the testator one which the grandson must fulfill before the grandson can have legal title to the funds held in trust for his benefit and thus amount to a condition precedent that would fail by reason of the Mortmain Statute and in so doing cause the entire will to fail!

[292]*292The entire estate was appraised at $244,392.50. It is being held by the bank under the will, and has, at this time, appreciated to a point where it is worth over $400,000.00.

As has been pointed out to this court many times, a will must be read in its entirety. In other words, the over-all intent must be gathered from the will as a whole. We must look at the entire forest tó get the whole picture. But we must remember, too, that the forest is made up of trees and the whole picture depends on the type, size and characteristics of the individual trees. So, in determining the picture presented by the whole will we must also determine the characteristics"of the individual items.

Testator disposed of his entire estate in Item 3 (except for minor provisions of Items 1 and 2), or so he hoped. The disposition was definite and detailed. He set up a trust according to his own particular ideas. They were to accomplish his specific purposes.

From the wording of Items 3 and 4, we could infer that, as a lawyer, he, as we all do, expected to live more than a year. But he apparently recognized that the Mortmain Statute might enter the picture, since his references to the charitable gifts were not set up as direct bequests. This, of course, is conjecture and may not be taken into consideration.

Nevertheless, he did place a limitation upon the gift to the grandson or the daughter, as the case may be, at the termination of the trust.

We must look at the whole will and at the specific items combined to determine the principal intent.

And that intent was not primarily to dispose of $35,000.00 to charitable and educational institutions. The primary intent was set forth in Item 3, i. e., to provide for his grandson’s best interests. In Item 4 he recognized the possibility of the grandson dying before he reached the age of forty, and the possibility of the bequest then lapsing. His secondary intent — to provide for his daughter— then came into play. It is noteworthy that no provision was made for the disposition of the estate if the conditions were not fulfilled by the grandson or the daughter. It will also be noted, that this carefully worded will uses the strong language that the assets “* * * shall pass and vest in my grandson, to be his absolutely and in fee simple, provided he [293]*293give * * From this wording alone we must conclude that the gift to the grandson was paramount and the limitation in favor of the charities subordinate. This is particularly plain, since the charitable contributions are small compared to the main bequest and this was unquestionably known to the testator.

From this we conclude that testator was doing everything he believed he could do to ensure the payments to charities, but that these payments were strictly secondary to his special ideas for the protection of first, his grandson and second, his daughter.

That brings us to the question of whether or not these conditions are invalid as against the Mortmain Statute. The intent of the testator is clear. He wanted these institutions to be benefited and his forebears memorialized. He wanted his grandson, himself, to make these gifts, and he was doing everything he could to make sure these gifts were made. Had he lived a year, these gifts would necessarily have been made.

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Related

Cleveland Trust Co. v. Lowe
191 N.E.2d 196 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
179 N.E.2d 379, 87 Ohio Law. Abs. 289, 21 Ohio Op. 2d 452, 1960 Ohio App. LEXIS 797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roenick-v-dollar-savings-trust-co-ohioctapp-1960.