214 Pa. 335 | Pa. | 1906
Opinion by
The proposition that a gift to several individuals described by their respective names, may be construed a gift to a class, if it is apparent from the will that the testator so intended, is not open to dispute. It is but a corollary of the larger and more comprehensive rule that subordinates everything in the construction of a will, to the expressed intention of the testator. If the diligence of counsel has not been rewarded by finding a case in our reports where such a gift has been held to be a gift to a class, it only goes to show how convincing to the common understanding the fact that the donees are severally and individually named is, that the testator meant that they should take individually and not as a class. This interpretation results in such case, not because of any technical rule which arbitrarily imposes a definite meaning upon the expression, but because the expression clearly and unequivocally imports this and nothing else. Cases where such a gift may be, and should be, construed to be a gift to a class, may readily be conceived. Following such a gift, an express direction that the parties named should take not individually but as a class, would more than countervail the fact that the gift was to them individually by name. Where there are other but less conclusive expressions or indications in the will, that notwithstanding the gift is to individuals named by the testator, they should take as a class, it becomes simply a question of relative weight of these conflicting expressions and indications. In the present case we have on one side the fact the
The decree is affirmed.