Scott v. Smith

151 S.W.2d 770, 286 Ky. 697, 1941 Ky. LEXIS 325
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976)
DecidedMay 23, 1941
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 151 S.W.2d 770 (Scott v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976) primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott v. Smith, 151 S.W.2d 770, 286 Ky. 697, 1941 Ky. LEXIS 325 (Ky. 1941).

Opinion

Opinion op the Court by

Judge Thomas

— Affirming-

*699 John Harlan Smith died testate a resident of Mer.cer County, Kentucky. Before his death he executed his will, which in due time thereafter was probated in the Mercer county court. This action was hied in the Mercer circuit court by his widow, the appellee and plaintiff below, Orpha Smith, individually and as executrix of her husband’s will, against the hiers and devisees of the testator to procure an interpretation of the will, and particularly her individual rights thereunder, including, of course, the extent of the estate that the will conferred upon her. No factual issue was made and the judgment of the court was based exclusively upon the language of the will. The court adjudged that under the interpretative rule as declared by this court, plaintiff, as widow of the testator, was devised the absolute title to all of the property he owned at the time of his death, and that the later clauses in his will attempting to dispose of any remnant that might be left at her death were each and all invalid and did not curtail or limit the absolute estate that he gaye his wife in the second item of his testamentary paper.

The learned jndge of the trial court filed an opinion in which he discussed all phases of the law applicable to the questions submitted, and made a complete correlation of the cases dealing with the same question here presented. He performed that task so fully and accurately — as well as completely in accord with our views— that we have concluded to adopt his opinion as the opinion of this court, although it is, perhaps, longer than we might have written, but the lucidity with which contentions of counsel are discussed and disposed of justifies, as we conclude, our incorporation of all of it. It says:

“The first item of the will of John Harlan Smith directed the payment of his debts, and by the second item he directed: ‘To my beloved wife, Orpha P. Smith, I will, bequeath and devise all of my property of every description, real estate, livestock, money, cash, bonds or stocks or any other property of any kind or description, for her to use and manage and dispose of as she thinks best and if she so desires to sell any of my real estate and make title to same by deed and said conveyance' so made by her to have the same force and effect as if made by me in person.’ By the third item he provided: ‘At the death of my said wife I will and bequeath any property then left to be divided equally between my two chil *700 dren Martha Bernice Smith and William Earl Smith.’ By the fourth and fifth items he provided that the property so passing to his two children should be used for their support, with the proviso that it was not to be subject to debts contracted by either, and with a limitation over of the property at the death of each, and in the seventh item he gave his children the right to sell the real estate devised to each, but in such event the money to be reinvested in other land, with title to be held in their names. By the sixth item he directed that at the death of his wife out of the estate then left $1,000 was to be used for a monument, and in the eighth item he bequeathed to William Scott, his son-in-law, at the death of his wife, $100. The ninth and final item, nominated his wife as the executrix, directed that no surety be required of her, no appraisement or settlement to be made by her, and empowered her to convey any real estate owned by him, with life effect as if made by him in person.

‘ ‘ The suit has been brought by the executrix asking a construction of the will. Testator died in 1935, and the will was duly probated. At the time the will was made, and when testator died, his son William Earl Smith, had no children, but since then a daughter, Ann Harlan Smith, has been born of his marriage with Fannie Walker Smith, to whom he was married at the time of testator’s death. The latter’s daughter, Martha Bernice Scott, was then married, and is now, to William Scott, and they have one child, William Harlan Scott, Jr., who was living when the will was executed. The answer of the two children of testator asserts that either the will is invalid because of uncertainty, or that under item 2 the widow took a life estate in the property with power to convey in fee, and contains allegations as to the interest the children and grandchildren have under the will, with a prayer for declaration of rights. The guardian ad litem, answering on behalf of the two infants, the grandchildren, alleges the widow takes under the will only a life estate, with the right to use the principal if .necessary for her support; that the two children of testator likewise have only a life estate, in remainder, in the property given them, and at the death of the widow and the two children the estate passes in fee to the grandchildren, that the widow, without valuable consideration, has conveyed the property devised to her in *701 item 2 to the two children, and asks that these conveyances be held void. If the wife of testator takes the fee under item 2 and the limitation over under item 3 is void, it will not be necessary to take up other questions regarding the construction of this will.

“If the absolute estate in property is devised to the first taker, a limitation over to another of what may be left of the property at the death of the former, is void. (Grilligan v. Louisville & N. R. R. Co., 195 Ky. 1, 240 S. W. 739; Snyder v. Snider, 202 Ky. 321, 259 S. W. 700; Weller v. Dinwiddie, 198 Ky. 360, 248 S. W. 874; Plaggenborg et al. v. Molendyk’s Adm’r, 187 Ky. 509, 219 S. W. 438; Linder et al. v. Llewellyn’s Adm’r, 190 Ky. 388, 227 S. W. 463; Jackson v. Ku Klux Klan, 231 Ky. 370, 21 S. W. (2d) 477 [75 A. L. R. 64]; Nelson v. Nelson’s Ex’r, 140 Ky. 410, 131 S. W. 187; Sumner et al v. Borders et al., 266 Ky. 401, 98 S. W. (2d) 918.)

“If, however, the first taker is given a life estate, though with power to use the principal as provided by the will, and there is then a limitation over what is left at his death, the limitation is valid. (Clore v. Clore, 184 Ky. 83 [211 S. W. 208]; Sutton v. Johnson [Ky. App.], 127 S. W. 747; McCullough’s Adm’r v. Anderson, et al., 90 Ky. 126 [13 S. W. 353, 7 L. R. A. 836]; Lanciscus v. Louisville Trust Company, 201 Ky. 222, 256 S. W. 424; Trustee of Presbyterian Church, etc. v. Mize, 181 Ky. 567 [205 S. W. 674, 2 A. L. R. 1237]; Hicks v. Connor, 210 Ky. 773, 276 S. W. 844; Evans v. Leer, 232 Ky. 358, 23 S. W. (2d) 553; Blessing v. Johnston, 249 S. W. 777, 61 S. W. (2d) 635; Lewis v. Lewis, 253 Ky. 843, 70 S. W. (2d) 679; Owensboro Banking Company v. Lewis, 269 Ky. 277 [106 S. W. (2d) 1000]). To be distinguished from the first group of cases are those holding that if property is devised to one absolutely, and there follows a limitation over of the very property so devised, and not of the residue remaining at the death of the first taker, the former takes but a life estate and the limitation over will be given effect. (American Christian Mission Soc. v. Tate et al., 198 Ky. 621, 250 S. W. 483; Coleman v. Griffin, 203 Ky. 109, 261 S. W. 890; Ewering v. Ewering, 199 Ky. 450, 251 S. W. 645; Phelps v. Stoner, 184 Ky. 466, 212 S. W. 423.) It is plain, however, our case does not belong to the last group. The problem is whether it belongs to the first or second. A review of *702

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Bluebook (online)
151 S.W.2d 770, 286 Ky. 697, 1941 Ky. LEXIS 325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-smith-kyctapphigh-1941.