Kellett v. Shepard

Citations

• 139 Ill. 433

Syllabus

<p>1. Will—remainder to “heirs” construed. A testator devised his estate to trustees in trust, and after making a provision for his widow, and some charitable bequests, directed that the remainder of his estate, real and personal, should be so managed and disposed of that one-half of the income thereof should be paid to his daughter during her life, with reversion to her children, should she have any, and in case of her death without issue, her share should go and descend to her heirs-at-law, and gave his son the balance of his estate, the income thereof until he should attain the age of thirty years, and then the whole of his share. The son and daughter both died after the probate of the will, without issue, the son dying first: Held, that the heirs-at-law who were to take the share of the daughter after her death without issue, were the son and the daughter of the testator who were living at the time of his death, in the absence of anything in the will to show a contrary intention.</p> <p>2. In such case, the fact that the daughter, at the expiration of whose life estate the distribution was to be made, was herself one of the hfeirs-at-law, is no proof of a contrary intention; nor does it make any difference in the rule whether those who are heirs-at-law at the time of the testator’s death are living or dead when the period of distribution arrives. Bequests of personalty, as well as devises of land, are subject to this rule of construction.</p> <p>3. The estate set apart for the use of the daughter vested in her and her brother, as heirs-at-law of the testator, at the time of his decease. Although the' trustees held the legal title, the equitable title was vested in the son and daughter, subject to be divested, by force of the will, in the event that the daughter should have children. The reversionary estate vested in the heirs-at-law was liable to open to let in her children, should she have any. In the meantime it subsisted in the testator’s heirs, for the purpo