Hutchins v. Pearce

Citations

• 80 Md. 434
• 31 A. 501
• 1895 Md. LEXIS 23

Syllabus

<p>Devise and. Legacy — Dying without Issue — Will and Codicil Construed Together — Substituted Legacy\\.</p> <p>A testator bequeathed a sum ot money to his daughter A., to be invested and held in trust by a trustee, with a limitation over in case A. should die without issue. Held, that A. took an absolute interest defeasible upon her dying without issue living at her death, and such property cannot pass under her will in the event of her so dying.</p> <p>In such a bequest, the time to which the dying without issue refers is that of the death of the legatee and not of the testator.</p> <p>Where the property given by the codicil is merely in substitution of that given by the will, it is taken with all its accidents.</p> <p>By his will a testator bequeathed a sum of money to a'trustee to be invested for the benefit of his daughters A. and B., and provided that in case they should die without issue, then such portion “ shall become part of my estate and be divided between my surviving heirs.” By a codicil-, the testator annulled that part of his will directing the trustee to invest a sum of money for his daughters, and “ in lieu thereof,” gave to his daughter A. certain ground rents, without expressly .making them subject to the limitation over, and by the next clause gave to his daughter B. certain other rents, adding “the same rents to be held in trust as directed in my foregoing will.” A. died without issue, leaving a will by which the residue of her estate was given to the plaintiff. Held,,</p> <p>That the devise of the ground rents to A. in the codicil must be read into the will; that she took in them an equitable estate in fee, subject to be defeated in the event of her dying without issue living at the time of her death, and that consequently the rents did not pass under her will.</p>