Cropley v. Cooper

Citations

• 86 U.S. 167
• 22 L. Ed. 109
• 19 Wall. 167
• 1873 U.S. LEXIS 1437

Syllabus

<p>A testator having five pieces of property’, to wit, insurance stock, a vacant city lot, a farm, corporation stock, and a city house, and little or no other, and having four children, to wit, three sons, two (A. and B.) married and having children, and one (C.) unmarried, and one daughter (D.) aged thirty, then married and having a child (E.) aged three years, made his last will.</p> <p>He left the interest on the insurance stock and the vacant lot to his married son A.; “and at his death” “ the aforementioned stock and the said vacant lot he equally divided between his (A.’s) children, their heirs and assigns, forever.”</p> <p>He left the interest on the corporation stock to his son B. “ for and during his life,” and at his death the said stock to be equally divided between his (B.’s) children.</p> <p>He left the usufruct of the farm to his unmarried son C., “ for and during his life;” “and should he marry and have legal issue,” the said farm to he equally divided amongst his children, when they shall have arrived at the age of twenty-one years. The will continued: “Should my said son die without lawful issue, it is my will that the said farm be equally divided between my other children, share and share alike, to them, their heirs and assigns, forever.”</p> <p>To his daughter he left the rent of his city house for and during her life, and directed that at her death the same should be sold and “ the avails thereof become the property of her children or child, when she or they have arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the interest in the meantime to be applied to their maintenance.”</p> <p>After the testator’s death, D., the daughter, had another child, who died in infancy. The first child, E., lived till he was twenty-eight years old, and then died, his mother still living, aged fifty-six, and the house not yet having been sold.</p> <p>On a bill filed by I)., after the death of both her children and of her husband, to settle the title to the city house, as betw