Watters v. First Nat. Bank of Mobile

171 So. 280, 233 Ala. 227, 1936 Ala. LEXIS 425
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedOctober 29, 1936
Docket1 Div. 908.
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 171 So. 280 (Watters v. First Nat. Bank of Mobile) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Watters v. First Nat. Bank of Mobile, 171 So. 280, 233 Ala. 227, 1936 Ala. LEXIS 425 (Ala. 1936).

Opinion

GARDNER, Justice.

That “the best laid schemes o’mice and men gang aft a-3'ley” is well illustrated by the will of Julian A. Watters, Sr., here presented for judicial interpretation, and involving the final disposition of an estate. of approximately three-quarters of a million dollars.

The will’s uniqueness lies in the apparent confident anticipation of a happy family of both boys and girls, with some detail of differing provisions for each separate class, though at the time of its execution in April, 1913, the testator had a wife and only child, a son 5 years of age. But the testatot died within less than a year (the following September), and the children, so confidently anticipated, were never born, his widow and only child constituting the survivors of his immediate family. The widow has remarried (now Mrs. Dumont), residing in New Orleans, and is content with her income derived and payable monthly from that part of the estate designated for that purpose, as provided in the will. She is apparently disinterested in this litigation.

The son, Julian, Jr., in the course of time was stricken with illness (sleeping sickness), and, before reaching his majority, in January, 1929, had become incapable of industry or the proper care of an estate, though without serious impairment of his mental faculties, and this condition continued to the time of his death in June, 1935, when he was 27 years of age. In the meanwhile, Julian, Jr., had married, and there was born to the union one son, Julian A. Watters, III, who, by his guardian ad litem prosecutes this appeal. At the time of his death said Julian, Jr., left surviving his widow, Madelyn Watters, and their one son.

Previously, and while his child was .3 years of age, Julian, Jr., had executed a will, which has been duly admitted to probate, and by the terms of which his said widow, Madelyn Watters, is given his entire estate of every character and description. It is by virtue of this will by her husband that Madelyn Watters lays claim to the estate of Julian A. Watters, Sr., upon the theory that under the terms of the latter’s will Julian, Jr., took a vested interest in such estate of his father when he reached the age of 21. This is the view entertained by the learned chancellor, and the entire estate so decreed to be hers.

*233 The minor, Julian A. Watters, III, insists that under the will of Julian A. Watters, Sr., the estate is his, and the contest here is in fact one between the mother and her minor son, now about 6 years of age, with so large an estate as the goal.

A short time (March, 1929) after Julian, Jr., reached 21, the First National Bank of Mobile, as trustee of the will of Julian, Watters, Sr., filed, its bill for interpretation. of the will, with particular reference to the matter of acceleration of the income payable to Julian, Jr., as provided in the will of his father: his physical condition rendering it impossible to comply with the conditions therein set forth. The trial court concluded, and so decreed (November, 1929), that due to such physical incapacity Julian, Jr., should be paid the income from his share of the estate since arriving at the age of 21, and from year to year thereafter until he reaches the age of 30 years, “when he shall receive the entire corpus of his share of said estate.”

The decree made reference to the fact that Julian, Jr., had a child then living, meaning this appellant, Julian, III, but who was not made a party to the suit. Counsel for appellee make explanation in brief that the child was born in June, 1929, following the filing of the bill in the month of March preceding. The fact remains that Julian, III, was in being during the pendency of that proceedings and when the decree was rendered, and was not in any manner made a party or represented therein.

On appeal to this court, the decree was affirmed with a brief, though entirely adequate, opinion, if the matter of income and its acceleration was alone to be considered. First National Bank v. Watters, 220 Ala. 356, 125 So. 222, 225. The record of that appeal bears every indication that it was a friendly proceeding, instituted for the purpose of securing income to Julian, Jr., and to meet an unusual and rather urgent situation, unanticipated by the testator in the strict wording of the will, but nevertheless with his general intent to provide support for his son. And the real question before the court, and here considered on appeal, was the power of the court to accelerate the payment of income to an afflicted child, and we think a reading of the opinion here rendered, limited as it is to “the case now before us,” readily discloses such was the issue and such the question determined.

There was no holding that Julian, Jr., acquired a vested interest in the corpus of the estate when he reached 21, nor was the final disposition of such corpus involved in the proceeding. Indeed, the answer and cross-bill of Julian, Jr., in those former proceedings disclose that he sought to have the court decree a portion of the corpus of the estate, and that he would be entitled to the same upon reaching the age of 35. But no such relief was granted, but the income alone decreed. From that decree Julian, Jr., did not prosecute any appeal or cross-assign any errors on the appeal, but acquiesced therein. On appeal the matter of income was considered the question to be • determined, and in which Julian, Jr., only was interested.

It is in the light of these facts (and the positive authority of a decision is coextensive only with the facts upon which it is made, Walker v. Walker, 17 Ala. 396), that the expression of the opinion “no contingency appears which would ultimately defeat the right of the beneficiary for whose benefit the fund is to be applied,” is to be viewed. We have referred to the fact that Julian, III, though in being, and expressly mentioned in the will of Julian Watters, Sr., under the general designation “grand-children,” was not made a party to that litigation, nor 'in any manner represented therein, and the decree rendered could not be properly held as conclusive against him. In re Kachelmacher’s Estate, 40 Ohio App. 282, 178 N.E. 314.

Viewed, therefore, in any aspect, we think the present appeal presents the matter of the final disposition of the corpus of the estate and the interpretation of the will relating thereto, entirely unembarrassed by any previous ruling on former appeal.

The will here involved has been ably discussed by counsel for appellant, for Madelyn Watters and for the trustee, with more than one theory advanced as to its proper interpretation, and answered by elaborate briefs by Madelyn Watters and the trustee, counsel ' for the latter joining with Madelyn Watters in her contention that her husband, Julian, Jr., acquired a vested interest upon reaching the age of 21 years. Necessarily, therefore, the argument has taken a wide range and many authorities noted. Those cited in the *234 opinion of the chancellor, however, are the cases more nearly applicable, and upon which chief reliance is had. The following excerpt from the chancellor’s opinion contains the citation of authorities, with appropriate heading of the legal principles which were of controlling influence in the rendition of the decree:

“In the first place, the law favors the vesting of estates at the earliest possible moment. Betts v. Renfro, 226 Ala. 635, 148 So. 406, 409; Crawford v. Engram, 153 Ala.

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171 So. 280, 233 Ala. 227, 1936 Ala. LEXIS 425, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watters-v-first-nat-bank-of-mobile-ala-1936.