Woodard v. Woodard

184 Iowa 1178
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 22, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 184 Iowa 1178 (Woodard v. Woodard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodard v. Woodard, 184 Iowa 1178 (iowa 1918).

Opinion

Salinger, J.

I. In the preliminary statement found in the argument for appellants, there is language which might be construed to claim that both the will at bar and the codicil thereto are violative of our statute rule against perpetuities, and that both are void for this and still other reasons. Considering the argument for the appellants as a whole, we incline to the view that the codicil, rather than the original will, is attacked. We are, at all events, of the opinion that none of the objections urged nullify the original will. That will provides:

(a) That the executor invest to best advantage and pay one fourth of the net income to four named grandchildren during their respective lives.

(b) At the death of each or either of said grandchildren, the executor shall pay to the child or children of such deceased grandchild one fourth of the then estate, “absolutely and without qualification.”

(c) If such deceased grandchild die without issue, then the portion that would- have gone to his issue, had he left any surviving, shall remain in control of the executor, and of its net income he shall pay one third to each then surviving grandchild, during life.

(d) At the death of either of the then said surviving grandchildren, one third of the share created because another grandchild died without issue, shall go to the issue of the grandchild who died leaving issue, “absolutely and without qualification.”

We may assume, for present purposes, that everything found in the brief is intended to present an attack upon the will, and so assume that, if the will stopped at the point thus far stated, that such attacks are well made. But the intent of the testator, as it may be ascertained from the [1181]*1181whole of the instrument, is the will: and in addition to what has been set out, the will has a clause which, in terms, declares it to be the intention that each of said four grandchildren have one fourth the net income for life; that, at the death of each grandchild, one fourth of the then estate go absolutely to the issue of such grandchild, and, if any grandchild die without issue, the “portion” of that grandchild shall go as is provided concerning the one fourth share, — i. e., income for life to the grandchildren, and at their death, or that of either of them, the principal to any issue left by such deceased grandchild or grandchildren. Once more assuming that all in the brief is an attack, and we' find the following arguments against the validity of the will:

1-a

When the gift is in trust, and is, as to the donee, found only in a direction to the trustee when to pay over or transfer, the gift does not vest until transfer or payment is made.

Remainders : bequests implied from mere direction to pay. To this we have to say that, said interpretative clause in the will being held to be the will, this is a case wherein the gift is made, not alone in the direction to pay, but elsewhere, and in the substantive part of the will. Where that is so, the great weight of authority is that no perpetuity is created. See In re Crane, 164 N. Y. 71 (58 N. E. 47); Leake v. Robinson, 2 Mer. 363; Smith on Executors, Par. 314; Batsford v. Kebbell, 3 Ves. 363; Moore v. Smith, 9 Watts (Pa.) 403; Howe v. Hodge, 152 Ill. 252 (38 N. E. 1083); In re Bartholomew, 1 M. & Gord. 354; Olsen v. Youngerman, 136 Iowa 404; Page on Wills (1901), Sec. 669, page 784; Shafer v. Tereso, 133 Iowa 342. The most that results is a vesting subject to defeasance if the beneficiary die before the time at which the executor is directed to pay over or transfer. Shackey v. Homer, 87 Neb. 146 (127 N. W. 145). On fair analysis, McClain v. Capper, [1182]*118298 Iowa 145, Wilhelm v. Calder, 102 Iowa 342, Thorndike v. Loring, 81 Mass. 391, Stevens v. Stevens, (Ky.) 54 S. W. 835, Kountz’s Estate, 213 Pa. 390 (62 Atl. 1103), and Beatty’s Admr. v. Montgomery’s Exr., 21 N. J. Eq. 324, hold nothing counter to this.

2. Remainder: withholding use and possession. We have to add what controls on this point and others: to wit, that if, on construing, a doubt arises as to whether a contingent or a vested remainder is intended, it is an elementary rule that the doubt shall be resolved in favor of vesting. See Ross v. Ayrhart, 138 Iowa 117; Shafer v. Tereso, 133 Iowa 342; Taylor v. Taylor, 118 Iowa 407; Archer v. Jacobs, 125 Iowa 467, at 476; Williamson v. Field, 2 Sanf. Ch. (N. Y.) 533, at 552; Gray v. Whittemore, 192 Mass. 367 (78 N. E. 422), — which we select from a multitude. An amplification or application of the rule is that, where all the limitations are to the direct descendants of the testator, it is a circumstance which warrants the inference that vested, rather than contingent, remainders were intended to be created. Gibbens v. Gibbens, 140 Mass. 102 (3 N. E. 1); Stanwood v. Stanwood, 179 Mass. 223 (60 N. E. 584); Bancroft v. Fitch, 164 Mass. 401 (41 N. E. 661); Gray v. Whittemore, 192 Mass. 367 (78 N. E. 422); Shafer v. Tereso, 133 Iowa 342. In the light of said interpretative clause, and of this rule of construction, the most that can be said, up to this point in the discussion, is that not more than use, enjoyment, and possession is postponed. And such postponement does not delay the vesting of the title, and hence is not within the prohibition of the statute. That this is so is held in cases too numerous to be cited, and we select Phillips v. Harrow, 93 Iowa 92, 97, citing Section 381, Perry on Trusts (5th Ed.); Archer v. Jacobs, 125 Iowa 467; and Kountz’s Estate, 213 Pa. 390 (62 Atl. 1103). True, under this will, it might be more years after the death of testatrix than are specified in the statute before her great [1183]*1183grandchildren would come into possession, use, and enjoyment. That would manifestly be so if the ancestor had leased the property for 999 years. Yet such a lease is no restraint upon alienation, and, therefore, does not offend the statute. Starcher Bros. v. Duty, 61 W. Va. 371 (56 S. E. 527); First Nat. Bank v. Sioux City Term. R. & W. Co., 69 Fed. 441; Sioux City Term. R. & W. Co. v. Trust Co., 82 Fed. 124; In re Rubbell Trust, 135 Iowa 637, at 644; Todhunter & Williamson v. D. M., I. & M. R. Co., 58 Iowa 205. It follows that, unless something not yet discussed avoids it, the great-grandchildren took title on the day the testator died, and, of course, no perpetuity was created. And see Meek v. Briggs, 87 Iowa 610, 614; Sherlock v. Thompson, 167 Iowa 1; Jordan v. Woodin, 93 Iowa 453; Williamson v. Field, 2 Sanf. Ch. (N. Y.) 533, at 552; Stout v. Stout, 44 N. J. Eq. 479 (15 Atl. 843); Archer v. Jacobs, 125 Iowa 467, at 479; Brown v. Lawrence, 57 Mass. 390, at 397.

1-b

3. Remainders: uncertain remaindermen. The next claim is that, when the will was executed, it could not be known what great-grandchildren would be in being when the time for payment or transfer arrived, ¿nd, therefore, the remainder is contingent. Assume that the time when a will is made is not affected by the time at which codicils are executed. Still, when the original will was executed, the following named great-grandchildren of testatrix were in being, and capable of.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kaufman v. Zimmer
287 N.W.2d 884 (Court of Appeals of Iowa, 1979)
Blair v. Kenaston
273 N.W. 184 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1937)
Hiller v. Herrick
179 N.W. 113 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1920)
Fleming v. Fleming
194 Iowa 71 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1919)
Johnson v. Coler
187 Iowa 734 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
184 Iowa 1178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodard-v-woodard-iowa-1918.