Estate of Hunt

Citations

• 133 Pa. 260
• 19 A. 548
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 898

Syllabus

<p>1. Grandchildren can be included in the term, “ children,” in a will, in but two cases : (a) when the will would be inoperative unless the sense of the term “children” were extended beyond its natural import; and (b) where the testator has clearly shown by other words that he did not intend to use the term in its proper, actual sense.</p> <p>(a) A testator directed by his will that his residuary estate should be divided among the persons legally entitled to it under the intestate laws, but, by a codicil, he provided as follows: “All my personal estate .....shall be divided equally between my wife.....and all my children, share and share alike.”</p> <p>(b) On the margin of the will and codicil, opposite each paragraph, were brief explanatory notes in red ink, and opposite the codicil was written as follows: “Personal estate to be equally divided among all the heirs.” The testator left to survive him a widow, children, and the daughter of a deceased child:</p> <p>2. In such case, the distribution directed by the will must give way to that provided by the codicil; the gift to the children was confined by the codicil to children in the proper sense, and this construction was unaffected by the use by the testator of the word “ heirs ” in the marginal note.</p>