Scofield v. Olcott

Citations

• 120 Ill. 362
• 11 N.E. 351

Syllabus

<p>I- WILLS—vested or contingent estate—rule of construction. It is a rule of construction, that estates, legal or equitable, given by will, should always be regarded as vesting immediately, unless the testator has, by very clear words, manifested an intention that they should be contingent on a future event.</p> <p>2. Same—equitable estate—vested remainder therein. There may be a vested remainder in an equitable as well as in a legal estate. Where a testator devises the legal title of his property to his executors, for the use of his wife for life, or until her marriage, with the remainder to his son, the latter will take a vested equitable estate in remainder. And the fact that legacies are to be first paid after the determination of the particular prior estate, will not render the devise to the son contingent.</p> <p>3. Same—vested estate defined—and of the distinction between a vested estate and one depending upon a contingency. An estate is vested when there is an immediate right of present enjoyment, or a present fixed right of future enjoyment. It gives a legal or equitable seizin. It takes effect, in interest and right, immediately on the death of the testator, although it may not at that time take effect in possession and enjoyment; and if it be a remainder, it can not take effect, in possession and enjoyment, until the death of the devisee for life, or other determination of the particular estate.</p> <p>4. It is the present capacity of taking effect in possession, if the possession were to become vacant, and not the certainty that the possession will become vacant before the estate limited in remainder determines, that distinguishes a vested from a contingent remainder. When the event on which the preceding estate is limited, must happen, and when it also may happen before the expiration of the estate limited in remainder, that remainder is vested. It is also vested when it is limited to a person in esse and ascer- * tained, to take effect, by words of ex