Randall v. Randall

Citations

• 85 Md. 430
• 37 A. 209
• 1897 Md. LEXIS 64

Syllabus

<p>Devise and Legacy — Acceleration of Vesting of Gift in Remainder After a Life. Estate — Renunciation of Life Estate by Widow— Termination of Trust Estate.</p> <p>When property is devised in trust partly for the testator’s widow during life with limitations over upon her death, a renunciation of the provisions of the will by the widow and her election to take her legal share, is treated as equivalent to her death, unless such construction contravenes a clear intention of the testator, and in such case the vesting of the gifts in remainder is accelerated and the trust is ter minated.</p> <p>A testator devised his whole estate in trust, the income to be applied by the trustee to the support of his wife and children during the life of the wife, and directed that when, after her death, all of his chil- : dren should arrive at age or marry, then the estate should be divided equally between them. The will further provided that if no child or descendant of the testator should be living at the time of the death of his wife, then the estate should be divided among the testator’s brothers and sisters and their issue. The widow now living renounced the will and took her legal share of the estate. The testator’s children, a son and a daughter, both of them of age, filed a petition asking that the property devised in trust be transferred to them. Held, that the renunciation of the widow to take under the will should be treated as equivalent to her death, so as to accelerate the vesting of the shares of the children and to terminate the trust ' estate, and that they are now entitled to receive their shares from the trustee.</p>