Dilworth's Estate

Citations

• 243 Pa. 475
• 90 A. 356
• 1914 Pa. LEXIS 650

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Construction—Dispository clause — Modification by subsequent provision — Option to purchase — Exercise of option — Title to personal property — Guardians—Authority—Ratification.</p> <p>1. Testator by will bequeathed all the residue of his estate, which included certain stock in a limited partnership, to his wife, “absolutely in fee, subject, nevertheless, to the terms and conditions hereinafter set forth.” This was followed by a provision granting to each of his four brothers and sisters an option to purchase one-fourth of all the shares and interests in the copartnership for a given sum, such option to be exercised by the next of kin of brothers and sisters who should predecease him, and to be paid for in interest-bearing notes, dated as of the date of his death. Upon failure to exercise the option it was provided that the decedent’s interest in the copartnership should “be vested in my said wife, and become her absolute property, with the same force and effect as though such option had not been granted.” The option was exercised by the living brothers and sisters and guardians of the minor children of those who were deceased. The widow refused to accept the notes signed by these parties for their proportionate shares of the. consideration money, and claimed the shares as her property. Held, that the dispository clause raised only a presumption of absolute gift, .which was explained.and modified by the subsequent provisions, and that when the option to purchase was accepted, title to the stock related back to the inception of the will and became as absolute as though there had been a direct bequest in the first instance subject to the payment of a specified sum.- • • ■</p> <p>• 2. In such a case where the alternative bequest, in the event of the. death of brother or sister, to the next of kin, was without- restriction on account of age, an acceptance of the option by the guardians of minors must have been in the contemplation of the testator and is suffi