Rau's Estate

Citations

• 254 Pa. 464
• 98 A. 1068
• 1916 Pa. LEXIS 753

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Construction — Life estates — Vested and contingent remainders.</p> <p>1. It is a general rule in the construction of wills that an interest is to be construed contingent only when it is impossible to construe it as vested.</p> <p>2. Where a testator creates a particular estate, and then goes on to dispose of the ulterior interests, expressly in an event which shall determine the prior estate, the words descriptive of such an event occurring in the latter devise will he construed as referring merely to the period of the determination of the possession or enjoyment under the prior gift, and not as designed to postpone the vesting.</p> <p>3. The law seeks always to avert a construction of a will which would result in a whole or partial intestacy.</p> <p>4. A testator bequeathed a share of his estate in trust for the use of a daughter for her life “and from and immediately after the decease of my said daughter......then in trust to grant and convey, assign, transfer and set over the principal......unto all and every child and children of my said daughter......and the legal issue of any of them deceased leaving issue......in equal parts and shares.” The daughter had a child living at the time of the testator’s death, who subsequently died in his minority during the lifetime of the daughter, unmarried, and without issue. Held, that the child of such daughter took a vested interest in his share of the residuary estate, to which his mother, the life tenant, succeeded, under the intestate laws.</p> <p>Rosengarten v. Ashton, 228 Pa. 389, distinguished.</p>