98 A. 321 | Conn. | 1916
It is clear that under the provisions of the fourth clause of the will in question, those persons and those alone are entitled to take in absolute ownership the rest and residue of the testatrix's estate therein disposed of, who satisfy her description of the beneficiaries of it. Whatever vesting in interest there may have been in any person or persons upon the testatrix's death, or thereafter, had become divested at the time of the death of her husband, the life tenant, in so far as inconsistent with the taking in possession and enjoyment as provided. Allen v. Almy,
The answer to that question is to be found in the meaning which the testatrix intended to attach to the word "representatives," as used by her in directing the division upon her husband's death. The terms "representatives," "legal representatives," and "personal representatives," as used in connections like the present, have no precise and determinate meaning. The meaning to be attached to them in a given will is to be determined by the testator's intent in their use as gathered from the language of the entire instrument read in the light of relevant circumstances. Staples v. Lewis,
An examination of this will discloses an intent upon the part of the testatrix to have her estate go to her kin represented by her nephews and nieces. It also appears that her scheme of distribution among them was one of strict equality. In the execution of this plan and purpose of equal distribution, it was natural that the testatrix, in contemplation of the possibility *689
that some one or more of the nephews and nieces might die before her husband, should provide a substitutionary gift in that event, and that such gift should take the form of one substituting the children or lineal descendants of the deceased for the deceased, thus enabling the stock of that nephew or niece to benefit by the will to the same extent that the deceased would have benefited if alive. Thus would the testatrix's estate be preserved to her kin and the fullest measure of equality be accomplished. The construction contended for by the appellants would lead to a diversion of a part of the testatrix's property to strangers to her blood and perhaps to her personally, and such a result was one to be readily anticipated by the testatrix if she used the word "representatives" in any other sense than as designating lineal descendants. It is scarcely probable that such a diversion was within her purpose. We are of the opinion that by representatives of the deceased nephews and nieces she meant lineal descendants, and that her will should be so construed. Such construction is not an uncommon one. ConnecticutTrust Safe Deposit Co. v. Hollister,
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.