Waldo v. Cummings

Citations

• 45 Ill. 421

Syllabus

<p>1. Estates—for life—taxes accruing upon—must be paid by the owner. The devisee of an estate for life is legally bound to pay the taxes accruing thereon, unless such liability is expressly removed by the terms of the instrument creating the estate.</p> <p>2. Same—what language used in a will—not deemed sufficient to excuse payment. Where a testator devised one-third of all his estate to A for life, “ to be used and occupied by her, with the rents, issues and profits thereof,” and the remainder to B, in trust for his children, with a proviso, that, if the children should permit any portion of the estate to he sold for taxes, and it should not be redeemed, they should forfeit their title to the unredeemed portion, — held, that this in no wise releases the devisee of the life estate from her legal liability to pay the taxes accruing upon her estate.</p> <p>3. Perpetuity—definition of. A perpetuity, as defined by Bouvier, and which definition has the approval of this court, is “ any limitation tending to take the subject of it out of commerce for a longer period than a life, or lives, in being, and twenty-one years beyond, and, in case of a posthumous child, a few months more, allowing for the term of gestation.</p> <p>4. Wills—chattels may be subjected by—to same modifications of ownership as realty. A limitation as to chattels in remainder, after a bequest for life, is good by way of executory devise, provided, the power of alienation is not suspended beyond the term of a life or lives in being at the testator’s death, and twenty-one years and the period of gestation thereafter.</p> <p>5. Same — construction of a particular will. Where, by the terms of a will, the testator required the division and payment of a certain portion of his estate, hy his executor to his two children, when the younger should attain the age of twenty-one years, to he held by them during life, and in the event of the death of either, before succeeding to his share of the property, without le