Sullivan v. Sullivan

242 Ill. App. 501, 1926 Ill. App. LEXIS 128
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 17, 1926
DocketGen. No. 7,701
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 242 Ill. App. 501 (Sullivan v. Sullivan) 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
Sullivan v. Sullivan, 242 Ill. App. 501, 1926 Ill. App. LEXIS 128 (Ill. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Partlow

delivered the opinion of the court.

Appellee, Margaret Sullivan, filed her bill in the circuit court of Woodford county against appellants, Catherine Sullivan, Charles Sullivan, Harry Sullivan, Joseph Sullivan, and Margaret Hupprich, who were the widow and heirs at law of William H. Sullivan, deceased, in which she sought to have a certain annuity due her under the will of her father, Lott Sullivan, made a lien upon certain lands devised to William H. Sullivan by his father Lott Sullivan, also for the payment of solicitor’s fee and costs. The case was referred to a master who recommended a decree as prayed in the bill. Exceptions to the report were overruled and a decree was entered as prayed, from which this appeal was prosecuted.

On May 6,1915, Lott Sullivan made his last will and testament. He died May 22, 1915, and his will was admitted to probate August 2, 1915. By the second clause of the will, the testator devised to his son, William H. Sullivan, 70 acres of land in fee, and 80 acres for life. Following this devise, in the same clause, was the following: “Said son William Sullivan is to pay to my daughter, Maggie Sullivan, 75e per acre, on the first of every January during her life, to be paid at any bank in the county where my daughter Maggie Sullivan may direct to have same paid. If not paid in due time, my son William Sullivan to pay all costs and collection charges. ’ ’ By the fourth clause, the testator devised to the daughter, Maggie Sullivan, the house and two acres of land where the testator lived, all household goods and furniture, one bay mare, one top buggy and harness, $5,000 in cash followed by this statement: “This is the money where she is drawing interest at the present time.”

At the time this will was made Margaret Sullivan was insane. Her father on September 2, 1912, caused to be filed in the county court of Woodford county, a petition against her for insanity. She was adjudged insane and committed to the Peoria State Hospital on September 2, 1913, where she remained until October 1,1916, when she was found to have regained her reason, was discharged, and her property restored to her.

Hpon the admission of the will to probate, William H. Sullivan entered into possession of the lands intended to be devised to him, and continued in posses-» sion until his death on July 2,1921. He regularly paid to Margaret Sullivan the annuity up to the time of his death, but she received no payment on said annuity after January 1,1921.

There was a mistake in the description of some of the land devised to William H. Sullivan, and for the purpose of correcting this error, on October 1, 1917, Margaret Sullivan and her brother Lott Sullivan, Jr., executed a deed for about 135 acres to William H. Sullivan, thus conveying to him the lands intended to be devised to him by the will. This deed contained the following clause: “The said Margaret Sullivan expressly reserves unto herself, and the said William H. Sullivan, grantee herein, agrees to pay her, the sum of 75c per acre on each and every acre of the above described premises, on the first day of each and every January during her natural life, for the purpose of carrying out the same provision in the last will and testament of the said Lott Sullivan, deceased.”

Margaret Sullivan designated the Minonk State Bank, of Minonk, as the place where such payment should be made, gave due notice of such fact to the parties interested, and demanded payment of the widow and heirs of William H. Sullivan, deceased.

The decree found the facts substantially as above stated, and further found that it was the intention of Lott Sullivan to make the payment of the annuity to Margaret Sullivan a lien upon the lands devised and intended to be devised to William H. Sullivan; that the payment of said annuity was a valid, existing and continuing lien upon all of said lands; that the present owners of said land took the same subject to said lien; that there was due Margaret Sullivan, on January 1, 1926, $806.25; that appellants are liable for the payment of said sum, together with all costs and collection charges, including a reasonable solicitor’s fee; that the costs are $94.85, and that a reasonable solicitor’s fee is $600; that the total amount of $1,501.10 shall be paid to solicitors for the petitioner herein within 30 days; that if appellants do not pay said sum, that the master in chancery shall sell the lands in and by said will devised, at public auction to the highest and best bidder for cash in hand.

Appellant insists that the decree is erroneous in finding that the will created a charge of 75 cents per acre on the lands devised and intended to be devised to William H. Sullivan.

The evidence shows that the testator at the time the will was executed owned several hundred acres of land and had some personal property. He had two sons and one daughter. At that time the daughter was in- ■ sane. He naturally wanted to make provision for her care and comfort. He gave her no real estate except the two acres where he lived. By the second clause of the will he made provision for her as above set forth. By the third clause he devised 240 acres of land to his son Lott Sullivan, Jr., and in the same clause made a provision for the payment of 75 cents per acre on this land similar to the one contained in the second clause. By the fourth clause he gave her certain personal property and $5,000. The will disposed of the whole estate, leaving no fund out of which the annuity could be paid unless it was a charge upon the land, or depended upon the personal obligation of the sons. It is apparent from the language of the will that the testator wanted to make the payments to his daughter specific and certain. He apparently did not want to rely upon the personal obligation of his two sons, hence he imposed a charge of 75 cents per acre on the lands devised to each.

It has been held in many cases that there is no specific language necessary to be used in a will in order to create a charge upon real estate. Any words that reasonably indicate the testator’s intention will be held to create such a charge. Daly v. Wilkie, 111 Ill. 382; Reid v. Corrigan, 143 Ill. 402; Parsons v. Millar, 189 Ill. 107; Williams v. Williams, 189 Ill. 500; Spangler v. Newman, 239 Ill. 616; Jacobs v. Ditz, 260 Ill. 98; Wingfield v. Edwards, 277 Ill. 176.

In Daly v. Wilkie, supra, the will devised certain real estate to a son and payment of $500 by the son to a daughter of the testator within seven years. It was held that the payment was a charge upon the real estate, and that the land could be sold to enforce the payment thereof.

In Parsons v. Millar, supra, certain lands were willed to a son provided he pay certain legacies within a specified number of years, and it was held that the son took the title in fee charged with the payment of the legacies.

In Wingfield v. Edwards, supra, by the seventh clause, the testator gave the land in fee to his daughters Mae and Martha Wingfield, subject to a life estate to the wife which was later extinguished. The eighth clause was as follows: “It is my will that from the death of my wife that Mae Wingfield and Martha Wingfield, if living, shall pay annually to my daughter Laura E. Edwards a sum equal to one-fourth the net income from above described eighty acres of land so long as they both shall live and hold the same and so long as my daughter Laura E.

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242 Ill. App. 501, 1926 Ill. App. LEXIS 128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sullivan-v-sullivan-illappct-1926.