12 Mills Surr. 373 | N.Y. Sur. Ct. | 1914
The transfer tax appraiser has appraised the property of which the decedent died possessed, and as his re
The decedent died on the 29th of December, 1912. On the 11th of August, 1908, she executed a will, the seventh paragraph of which reads as follows: “ I give and bequeath to my executors hereinafter named the thirty shares of stock of the Standard Oil Company owned by me, in trust, to receive the income thereof and apply $600 per annum to the use of my brother, Alexander Leavitt.” The eighth paragraph of the will provides that upon the death of her brother the “ thirty shares of Standard Oil stock aforementioned ” shall be sold and the proceeds divided among certain legatees therein mentioned. The will contained a residuary clause by which the testatrix bequeathed all the rest, residue and remainder of her property to Mrs. Roy Johnston. On the 18th of September, 1912, the decedent executed a codicil to her will by which she gave a number of shall legacies amounting in the aggregate to about $1,700, but she did not change or modify the paragraphs above quoted. Her brother, Alexander Leavitt, predeceased her, without leaving a widow or children. His legacy, therefore, lapsed, and the legatees to whom was given the remainder after his life estate then became entitled to the thirty shares of Standard Oil Company stock which the testatrix directed her trustee to hold in trust for him.
In December, 1911, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, in conformity with a decree of the United States Supreme Court, distributed among its stockholders a number of shares of the stock of its subsidiary companies. As a result of this decree and the distribution made thereunder the testatrix, as the owner of the thirty shares of Standard Oil Company^
The question now presented to the surrogate for determination is whether the bequest of the thirty shares of stock of the Standard Oil Company carries with it the shares of stock of subsidiary companies awarded upon the distribution made by the Standard Oil Company in December, 1911, or whether the shares of stock of the subsidiary companies go to the residuary legatee under the residuary clause of the will. As a general rule a will speaks as of the date of decedent’s death, but this rule is subject to the exception that in the case of specific lgacies the will speaks as of the time of its execution. Matter of Delaney, 133 App. Div. 409; affd., 196 N. Y. 530. The testatrix bequeathed “ the thirty shares of stock of the Standard Oil Company owned by me.” This is a specific bequest, because the testatrix refers to particular property and specifically described its nature and quantity. The bequest, therefore, was a specific bequest of the thirty shares of Standard Oil Company stock which the decedent owned at the time she executed the will. The will, therefore, must be construed, in so far as the question of this particular bequest is concerned, as of the date of the execution of the will.
The language used by the testatrix in making the bequest is clear and explicit. If the United States Supreme Court had not decreed that the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey should distribute among its stockholders the assets of the various subsidiary companies controlled by it there would be no question as to the right of the legatees mentioned in the .eighth paragraph of the will to the thirty shares of Standard
Decreed accordingly.