Weber v. Bardon

111 A. 649, 92 N.J. Eq. 190, 7 Stock. 190, 1920 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 17
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedOctober 20, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 111 A. 649 (Weber v. Bardon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weber v. Bardon, 111 A. 649, 92 N.J. Eq. 190, 7 Stock. 190, 1920 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 17 (N.J. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

Fielder, Y. C.

The bill of complaint is filed by the executor and trustee of Fred B. Bardon, deceased, praying for instructions with regard to the payment of legacies bequeathed by the will and codicils of deceased. The testator died March 17th, 1916, leaving a will dated June 10th, 1910, and two codicils dated, respectively, April 10th, 1911, and December 4th, 1911. The will directs payment of his debts and funeral expenses; provides for the erection of a monument; makes several bequests of legacies in specific sums of money and thereafter continues as follows:

“X give and devise unto my executor, hereinafter named, in trust, all my real estate, to be held and used for the support and maintenance of my wife, Mary Ella Bardon, so long as she remains my widow, and of my daughter Ella Pearl Coultas, giving, however, to the said trustee the power and authority to sell any, or all of my estate, • either at private or [191]*191public sale, if lie deems best, and to execute and deliver to the purchaser, or purchasers of the same, good and sufficient conveyances in law for the same and to invest the net proceeds of the same in some safe securities, and to pay to my said wife and daughter the annual interest thereof, and if the interest received from the principal be not sufficient for their support, then to pay to them out of the principal, from time to time, such sums as may be necessary for their support. If my said wife should marry again, or at her death, then at such time, the portion having been paid to her shall be paid to my said daughter, and at the decease of my said daughter I give, devise and bequeath all the rest and remainder of my estate, unto the child or children of my said daughter, when of full age, to them, their heirs. If my said daughter should die leaving no child, or children surviving her, then I give, devise and bequeath all my estate to All Souls Hospital of Morristown, New Jersey, to and for its sole use and benefit.”

By the first codicil the testator revokes two bequests in his will, amounting to a total of $1,000, and substitutes in lieu •thereof a new bequest of $2,000, and the codicil continues:

“In case of my wife’s -and daughter’s deaths, and the former leaving no children, then I wish all my estate remaining at that time to be given to S. Elizabeth Kettenring, of Madison, New Jersey, provided she is unmarried. If she is married then the former provision in the last item of original will be carried out. If my daughter should die leaving a child or children, then such child or children should share equally with S. Elizabeth Kettenring, of Madison, New Jersey, in division of property, at the time of my daughter’s death, provided said S. Elizabeth Kettenring should be unmarried. If no children remain, and Miss S. Elizabeth Kettenring be married, then the entire estate shall go to All Souls Hospital of Morristown, New Jersey.”

The second codicil merely revokes a legacy of $500 bequeathed by the will.

The testator died seized of personal property inventoried at $298.33 and of real estate valued at $10,000. His legacies amount to a total of $3,100, but the legatee of a $2,000 beqitest is said to have renounced her legacy and to have filed a written refusal to accept it. The personal estate being insufficient to satisfy the remaining legacies of $1,100, the question presented is whether they are a charge on the real estate.

The rule laid down in Leigh v. Savidge, 14 N. J. Eq. 124, and followed in a long line of decisions of our courts, not necessary to cite here, is that the personal estate is the primary fund out of which legacies are payable. The real estate is not charged [192]*192with the payment of legacies unless the testator intended it should be, and that intention must be either expressly declared or faiidy and satisfactorily inferred from the language and dispositions of the will.

This case is submitted on bill and answer, no testimony having been taken, the parties not having even availed themselves of the privilege of showing the amount of the testator’s personal property at the time he made his will, as they were entitled to on the authority of Leigh v. Savidge, supra, and Johnson v. Poulson, 32 N. J. Eq. 390, for the purpose of disclosing what relation such personal estate then bore in value to his real estate and thus throwing some light on his probable intention. Perhaps, such evidence was not obtainable. As the case stands, I must spell out the testator’s intention solely from his will and codicils.

There is nothing in the will expressly declaring an intention to make the legacies a charge on real estate. The legatees, who are the defendants in this suit, rely on the rule stated in Corwine v. Corwine, 24 N. J. Eq. 579, and followed by our courts in many subsequently reported cases, to the effect that if legacies are given generally, and the residue of the real and personal estate is afterward given in one mass, the legacies are a charge on the residuary real, as well as personal, estate, and they point to the words “all the rest and remainder of my estate” and “my estate remaining,” contained in the clauses of the will and codicil above quoted, as declaratory of the testator’s intention to give, bequeath and devise all his personal and real property as a residuary estate remaining after all payments directed by the will and codicil had been made, including the legacies to the defendants. The term “estate” is a most comprehensive one, and, standing without qualification or explanatory words, would include all the testator’s property, real and personal (Cook v. Lanning, 40 N. J. Eq. 372), but the expressions upon which the defendants rely must be read with the context of the clauses of which they are part, and the rule in Corwine v. Corwine can prevail only where the usual and ordinary meaning of such expressions is not restrained or avoided by other words or provisions in the will, to which due effect must be given in endeavoring to [193]*193collect the intent of the testator. Johnson v. Poulson, supra; Shannon v. Ryan, 111 Atl. Rep. 155.

It will he observed that nowhere in the will does the testator specifically mention his personal estate, or refer to it as such, and that he made no specific disposition of his personalty, whereas he does make specific devise of his real estate. The plan he seems to have had in mind was first to provide sums of money which would naturally come out of personal estate, for legatees who, so far as the will discloses, were not related to him, and then his mind turned to his wife and daughter, and for their use and benefit he placed his real estate in trust, and, finally, still dealing with his real estate, he provided for his grandchildren. If this was a specific devise of real estate, then the legacies cannot be charged against such derise. Leigh v. Savidge, supra.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
111 A. 649, 92 N.J. Eq. 190, 7 Stock. 190, 1920 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weber-v-bardon-njch-1920.