Thomas' Estate

Citations

• 241 Pa. 290
• 88 A. 499
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 779

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Codicils—Construction.</p> <p>1. Where a will and codicil are to be construed, they must be regarded as parts of one and the same instrument, and the codicil is not to be allowed to vary or modify the will, unless it be plain that such was the intention of the testator. But where there is a real discrepancy, the codicil, or if more than one, the last must prevail.</p> <p>2. By her last will testatrix disposed of her personal effects and devised her residuary estate in trust to pay over one-half of the income thereof to her unmarried daughter C, one-fourth to her married daughter L, and the remaining one-fouth to her daughter-in-law E for the benefit of herself and her two children, the trust to continue for the lives of the cestuis que trustent, and twenty-one years after the death of the survivor, with an ultimate remainder to a charity. In case of the marriage of C, her interest was to be reduced to one-third and the share of E was to be forfeited by her marriage. A codicil was executed' three months later, which recited the source of the family fortune, and declared the purpose of testatrix to equalize the shares of her children and grandchildren in the distribution of that fortune. It further set forth that under the terms of the will of her sister W, testatrix received a life estate in two-thirds of W’s estate with remainder to her surviving children and that when testatrix made her will she was under a wrong impression as to how distribution would be made of this portion of her sister’s estate. She therefore directed that the share of her grandchildren in her estate should be computed by adding to the net amount of her estate a sum equal to the amount of the trust estate under the will of her sister, and that one-third of this total should constitute the trust fund for the children of her deceased son; that this share or part should be deducted from her “own individual estate,” and the balance of her “said estate” should be equally divided between t