White v. Keller

68 F. 796, 15 C.C.A. 683, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2911
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 23, 1895
DocketNo. 262
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 68 F. 796 (White v. Keller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White v. Keller, 68 F. 796, 15 C.C.A. 683, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2911 (5th Cir. 1895).

Opinion

PARDEE, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts). That the will of K aspar x\.uch was a valid will in Louisiana; that it devises all the real estate of which Kaspar Auch died seised; that the legacy to the incorporated churches of the Presbyterian denomination in the city of New Orleans, “to the end that the poor of said respective churches might, be cared for,” is a donation to pious uses; that there is no uncertainty as to the legatees described in [800]*800the will; and that the several incorporated churches named in the record have power, under their charters, to take as trustees under the said will, and have full power to administer the trust,— is all adjudicated by the decision of the supreme court of the state of Louisianá, found in the record, and reported in 39 La. Ann. 1043, 3 South. 227.

On the trial in the court below, the plaintiff objected to the admission in evidence of the record from Louisiana, and such admission is assigned in this court as error. Many objections are elaborated, but they are mainly as to the effect to be given to the record. In our view, the record was admissible to show that, as between plaintiff’s grantors and the defendant’s grantors, practically the matters above recited were duly litigated and decided, binding both plaintiff and defendant privies thereto as to all matters in connection with the will of Kaspar Auch within the jurisdiction of the Louisiana court.

“The nature, meaning, and Interpretation of a will of immovable .property, and the rights and powers arising under it, are to be determined by the law of the domicile of the testator, and not by the law rel situs.” Crusoe v. Butler, 36 Miss. 150; citing Story, Confl. Laws, 262, 479a, 479h, 479m, 490.

As Kaspar Auch’s domicile was in the state of Louisiana, and as the question in this case involves immovable property in the state of Mississippi, it seems clear that the nature and meaning and interpretation of Kaspar Auch’s will, and the rights and powers arising under it, are fully settled for this case by the decision of the supreme court of Louisiana, supra.

“The term ‘property’ embraces both real and personal estate; and under it, when used in the general residuary clause in a will, the real estate of the testator, not attempted to be specifically disposed of, will pass.” Morris v. Henderson, 37 Miss. 492; citing Doe v. Langlands, 14 East, 370; Doe v. Morgan, 6 Barn. & C. 512, 13 E. C. L. 235.
“If the real estate be not attempted to be disposed of specifically by the will, it will pass to the general residuary devisee, unless restricted by other clauses of the will; for, not being disposed of, nor attempted to be disposed of, it must be taken to have been intended to be embraced in the positive disposition of the residuary clause. 1 Jarm. Wills, 588-590. In such a case it would be doing violence to the express disposition of the will to say that, as to such real estate, the testator intended to die intestate.” Morris v. Henderson, supra.

These authorities dispose of the objections that the will of Kas-par Auch does not, on its face, purport to devise real estate in Mississippi, and must be limited in its operative effect to the state of Louisiana, and that the words “property and effects,” as used in the residuary clause of Kaspar Auch’s will, are shown by the context to apply only to personalty, or, at best, to the property and effects of the testator in Louisiana.

If the devise of all the testator’s real estate to the Presbyterian churches of New Orleans, “to the end that the poof of said respective churches may be cared for,” is a valid devise, and operated to convey real estate in the state of Mississippi, — as to which more will be said hereafter, — then the question is presented as to when the said devise took effect It is seriously contended, and the contention is supported by very plausible argument, that the said de[801]*801vise took effect only when the will of Kaspar Auch was probated in Mississippi, and Rankin v. Scott, 12 Wheat. 177, and M’Cormick v. Sullivant, 10 Wheat. 202, are cited as authority for the position. An examination of those cases will show that they do not support the contention, but rather establish, what we think would hardly be denied, that the subsequent probate of ah unregistered will will not be effective as against an innocent purchaser for value from the heir at law. In Williams on Executors (Am. Notes, p. 255) it is said:

“The prohate is, however, merely operative as to authenticated evidence, and not at all as the foundation of the executor’s title, for he derives all his interest from the will itself, and the property of the deceased vests in him the moment of the testator’s death. Hence the probate, when produced, is said to have relation to the time of the testator’s death.”

In the case of Crusoe v. Butler, supra, the aboye proposition from Williams on Executors is quoted with approval, and the court, speaking of an Alabama will probated in Mississippi, under which the executors had made a sale of lands in Mississippi prior to probate in that state, said:

“When the will was probated in Alabama, the power granted had relation back to the deatli of the testator. The grant of letters was merely the establishment of the character of the executors, and operated as a. sanction to their exercise of the said power, granted to them in their character as executors by the will. The power in them was thus complete upon the probate of the will and ilieir undertaking the trust in Alabama; and when the will was admitted to record in this state, it was merely for the purpose of authenticating the evidence hy which 1lie special power was established, and of rendering the prior right available itere; but it was clearly neither the source nor the foundation of the power.”

If it were necessary, the proposition quoted from Williams on Executors, supra, could be supported on principle, and by the authority of many adjudged cases. But we do not understand that the case of Crusoe v. Butler is seriously denied as correctly declaring the law in Mississippi, and we therefore conclude that the rights of the legatees under the will of Kaspar Audi, if said will was otherwise valid, vested when Kaspgr Audi died, in 1886, and that the rights of the defendant in error, claiming under said legatees, are unaffected by the failure to probate the will of Kaspar Audi in the state of Mississipx>i until the year 1893; and also that in determining whether the will of Kaspar Audi was valid, and passed the real estate belonging to the testator in the state of Mississippi, the constitution of the state of Mississippi declared and put in force in 1890 need not he considered, except so far as the provisions of the said constitution may aid the court in determining what was the policy of the state of Mississippi in the year 3886 in regard to devises to- religious corporations in trust for charitable uses. So far as the will under consideration makes a devise for charitable uses, we understand that the rule against perpetuities cannot be invoked against it. Jones v. Habersham, 107 U. S. 174-185, 2 Sup. Ct. 336; Russell v. Allen, 107 U. S. 163, 2 Sup. Ct 327; Ould v. Hospital, 95 U. S. 303; 1 Perry, Trusts, 384.

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Bluebook (online)
68 F. 796, 15 C.C.A. 683, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 2911, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-keller-ca5-1895.