Sellers' Ex'or v. Reed

Citations

• 88 Va. 377
• 13 S.E. 754
• 1891 Va. LEXIS 47

Syllabus

<p>1. AYills — Remainders—Vested—Contingent.—AYhere a future time for payment of a legacy is defined by the will, the legacy will he construed as vested, when the time is meant to he annexed to the payment or possession only, but as contingent, when annexed to the gift itself, e. g. Legacy payable to legatee at twenty-one, or any other age, is vested ; a legacy payable to legatee at twenty-one, or when he attains twenty-one, ' is contingent unless the intermediate interest is given to him, in which case the legacy is vested. Major v. Major, 32 Graft. 819.</p> <p>2. Idem — Case at bar. — Testator willed all his property, real and personal, to his wife until their youngest child reached seventeen years, she to board, clothe and educate all the children until that time, when he willed .his wife one third, and tlu1 remainder to the children equally ;</p> <p>Held :</p> <p>Each child took absolutely a vested interest.</p> <p>3. Idem — Vesting—Legacies—Devises—Intention.—The law favors the vesting of estates, and of devises more strongly than of legacies; but the intention gathered from the whole will, prevails over merely technical words or expressions. Devises are always held to be vested, except estates in the devise of which a condition precedent is so clearly expressed that to treat them as vested, would he to decide in express opposition to the intention.</p> <p>4. Jurisdiction — Title to land. — A trust deed to secure a debt, less than 8500, having been executed, on his interest under the will, by one of the legatees who died before the youngest child reached seventeen, the question in court below was whether his interest was a vested interest going to his administrator, or a contingent interest lapsing at his death ;</p> <p>Held :</p> <p>This coui’t has jurisdiction of the appeal as the controversy concerns the title to land. Code, § 3455.</p>