177 A. 10 | Pa. | 1935
When Michael Gibbons' will was before this court for interpretation, the question involved seemed definitely predicated on the disposition of the residuary estate on the termination of the trust, created for the lives of his wife and children. In that case, Gibbons v. Connor,
The facts there presented were: A son of testator brought partition proceedings after the death of his mother against the other children and grandchildren of the testator on the theory that the gift of rents, issues and profits without limitation was tantamount to a gift of the corpus or fee in the estate to such children and grandchildren and that therefore he was entitled to partition. This court held: "There was no devise of the corpus of the estate. . . . It was the intention of the testator . . . that the estates given to his children should be free from the incidents of curtesy and dower which would have resulted from a vesting of the corpus of the estate in the children. . . . The intention disclosed is that they *467 [husband and wives] should receive nothing either under the will or under the law. To give effect to this intention, if for no other reason, the trust should be upheld." The court evidently regarded the corpus of the estate as not being disposed of, but did not permit partition as it was necessary to preserve the corpus intact to sustain the trust that had been created; also that the beneficiaries were to receive "their respective portions of the income during the existence of the trust."
While, in Gibbons v. Gibbons,
In the case before us we are again asked to interpret this will and reverse or explain our former decision. The trust is now terminated, an account has been filed, and the auditing judge in determining the question of distribution held that the corpus passed to the grandchildren under the theory presented in Gibbons v. Connor, supra, and rejected by this court; that is, a devise of the rents, issues and profits of the land passes the land itself both at law and in equity. See France's Est.,
The court below seemed to be of the further opinion in passing the estate to the children and not decreeing an intestacy that if the latter occurred there was a possibility that spouses might take some portion of it as prohibited by the codicil. Where testator passes his estate under the intestate law, excluding individuals, the direction is valid: McGovran's Est.,
This court having intimated in two previous cases that the will did not dispose of the corpus of the estate, it follows that the majority opinion of the court below was in error in holding that it did. We decree that the testator died intestate as to the corpus.
The decree of the court below is reversed.