51 Tenn. 43 | Tenn. | 1871
delivered the opinion of the Court.
The complainant is the executor of the last will and testament of Samuel Winstead, deceased, and brings this bill of interpleader for instructions in the disposition of said estate. The will gives a life estate in four tracts of land and other property
“It is my will and desire that the money arising from the sale of my four tracts of land, and all my other property, be equally divided between my brother John "Winstead’s children, and my nephew Honing, and my sister Mason Wilson and her children — all to be made equal.”
The pervading idea of the will, which was executed several years before the late civil war, seems to have been the emancipation of the large number of slaves then owned by the testator, and their transportation to Liberia, for which purpose -the will creates an ample fund by the sale of certain valuable' proi:>erty.
In a codicil executed some years after the writing of the will, occurs this provision:
“My will and desire is, and I do will and appoint that the moneys arising from the sale of the lands and personal property willed and directed to be sold after the death of my wife, be equally divided between the children of my brother John Winstead, and my nephew, John Honing, sister Mason Wilson, and the children of said Mason Wilson, each one to have an equal share; and should any of the above persons or beneficiaries object or contest my will, I will and direct that the share of such person or beneficiaries in this item of my will so contesting, be withheld and abstracted from his or her*48 share, and given to such of the persons or beneficiaries in this item of my will, as shall not contest the same.”
Pending the life estate, the interest in remainder of Samuel "Winstead, Jr., who was one of the children of the testator’s brother John, referred to, was levied on and sold — the said Samuel having survived the testator, but dying .before the falling in of the life estate, and after the said levy and sale. The purchasers of his said remainder interest are claiming the same, and are made parties defendant with the legatees and devisees under the will. The only question in controversy is, whether, under the provisions of the will the said Samuel "Winstead, Jr., took a. vested and transmissible interest in said estate, and whether the said purchasers acquired any interest by their said purchase. The Chancellor was of opinion, and so decreed, that the bequest in remainder was to a class, and that they only were entitled to it, who were surviving at the time of the falling in of the life estate. Erom this decree the purchaser appealed.
The criterion by which Courts are to be guided in solving a question often so vexed and so difficult, is the intention of the testator. And to ascertain this intention, we must look to the manner in which the testator has designated the objects of his bounty. The key to such an inquiry is, do the testator's words import that he intended that the remainder should go to any number of persons as a unit; or, that the persons who are the objects of his bounty
It is said, very truly, that “wills are frequently
The testator is presumed to have used words in their ordinary sense, unless it appears from the context that he used them in some other sense; or unless by a reference to extrinsic circumstances, the use of the words in their ordinary sense would render the provision of the will inoperative or insensible : Mowatt v. Carow, 7 Paige, 328. And, again, where the will is evidently drawn by an unskilled hand, the terms used shall receive their popular, not their technical meaning: Harper v. Wilson, 2 A. K. Marsh., 466.
It has been repeatedly announced from this bench that the law favors the vesting of estates. And this is the prevailing doctrine of the Courts at the present day. It is said by a learned author of our own country that there can be no question that the tendency of the more recent decisions is clearly in favor of holding all estates in remainder to be vested when that can be fairly done without too great violence to the
It is said that the conflict between the cases upon this subject in our own books is more apparent than real. In Satterfield v. Ivey, the bequest was of a slave to Elizabeth Mayes for life, with remainder to her daughters. And it was held that the bequest was to a class of persons without specific designation by name, and the daughters alive at the time of the death of the mother constitute that class, and are entitled to the entire benefit of such bequest: 11 Hum., 58. In Bridgewater v. Gordon the testator gave his estate to his wife for life or widowhood, with provision for advancements to his children; and directed that the whole be equally divided between the children, share and share alike, at the termination of the particular estate; and it was held that the interest in remainder vested at the death of the testator, to be enjoyed in possession at the termination of the life estate, and that the children took a several interest in remainder as tenants in common: 2 Sneed, 5. In Beasly v. Jenkins, the will provided as follows: “I give all the balance of my land to my brother Hiram during his natural life; and at his death my
Now, it will be observed that no two of these cases are identically the same, and each is made to depend upon what seemed to be the intention of the testator, as indicated by the language used. In ascertaining this intention, much force is to be given to the designated proportions in which the will directs that the estate is to pass. If the objects of the testator’s bounty and affection be his nephews and nieces, the offspring of several brothers and sisters — each class differing in
It will be seen, therefore, from these authorities, that in the solution of analogous questions, the Courts have not failed to recognize the significance of the testator’s having indicated the proportions in which the remainder should be distributed, as evidence of his intention to create a vested and transmissible interest. Thus it will be observed that in our own cases, already cited, of Bridgewater v. Gordon, 2 Sneed; Harris v. Alderson, 4 Sneed; Petty v. Moore, 5 Sneed; and Alexander v. Walch, 3 Head, in which the estates in remainder were severally held to be vested, the pro
That the legatees in remainder in the will of Samuel Winstead were all in his mind when he wrote his will, and were severally the objects of his affection and his bounty, is most manifest from the manner in which they are named in the will; and that he intended to vest each of them with an individual interest in the same, is apparent from his repeated declarations of an intention that one shall not have more than another, but that they shall share his bounty equally. The bequest is to “my brother John Winstead’s children, and my nephew Honing, and my sister Mason Wilson, and her children;” and the proportions are, “tó be equally divided;” and again, “all to be made equal;” and in the codicil, the beneficiaries are named in the same order, and the proportions again indicated by the words, “equally divided,” and by the still more significant expression, “ each one to have an equal share.” Under the rules and principles of interpretation already stated, we are of opinion that these parties in remainder each took, at the death of the testator, a
The decree of the Chancellor is reversed; but as the record does not advise us of the particular form of proceeding under which the purchasers of the interest of Samuel Winstead, Jr., claim the same, we remand the cause for further proceedings in the Chancery Court, without determining the validity of said levy and sale.