105 A. 369 | Md. | 1919
This case is before us on an appeal from the decree of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County overruling exceptions of the appellant to a sale made to him and reported to the Court by James M. Munroe, trustee. George H. Chard was in his lifetime seized and possessed of a farm in Anne Arundel County. His will, dated the 1st of February, 1878, after the formal parts, was as follows:
"1st. I desire my brother Robt. W. Chard to settle my estate.
"2nd. After all my just debts are paid, I desire my wife, Nancy E. Chard, to have and to hold the balance as long as she may live and at her death if any remain to be divided among my children by the said Nancy E. Chard."
George E. Chard died in 1878, leaving surviving him his widow, Mrs. Nancy E. Chard, and three daughters, namely, Mrs. Sadie Cook, Miss Lottie Chard and Miss Mary Chard. Mrs. Cook survived her husband, Henry D. Cook, and died a few years ago leaving eight children, all of whom are parties to the cause in which Mr. Munroe was appointed trustee to sell the property, for the purposes of partition. Miss Lottie Chard married Warren A. Ballard and has three children. Miss Mary Chard is unmarried and Mrs. Nancy E. Chard, widow of George H., is still living. By a deed dated January 10th, 1899, Nancy E. Chard, widow, Lottie Chard, now Mrs. Ballard, and Mary Chard conveyed in fee simple to Sadie Cook the farm in question. Several exceptions were filed to the ratification of the sale reported by Mr. Munroe, but all were abandoned excepting the second and third, which call for the construction of the will of George H. Chard. The appellant contends that Nancy E. Chard, the widow, took a life estate in the lands, without power of sale; with remainder to the children of the said George H. Chard and Nancy E. Chard, contingent upon their being still alive at the death of the life tenant. That the life tenant being still alive, it *653 can not certainly be determined in whom the remainder will vest.
While the will was doubtless not drawn by a lawyer, it expresses the evident intention of the testator — which was that his widow should have all of his property for life, without impeachment of waste, and that after her death the remainder should be divided between his children by Nancy E. Chard. It is not necessary to cite many authorities to show that the law favors the early vesting of estates, and that when the language of a will or other instrument admits of such construction, a remainder will be declared to be vested, rather than contingent. In one of the earlier cases in this State, which has been so frequently cited, Tayloe v. Mosher,
In Hoover v. Smith,
In Roberts v. Roberts,
In Weller v. Kolb,
The appellant referred in his exceptions to Williams v.Armiger,
Of course, if one of his children had died intestate during the lifetime of the tenant for life and left a child or issue, without having disposed of her interest in the vested remainder, such child or issue would have inherited that interest, but would have taken as heir of his or her parent, and not under the will of the testator, and hence the vested remainder would not have been divested as would have been under the deed under consideration in Williams v. Armiger, or under the will construed in Cox v. Handy,
It does not seem necessary to discuss such cases as Demill v.Reid,
The will did not leave the remainder to the children of Nancy E. Chard, but to his children by her, and hence any children she might have had by another husband would not be entitled to take and there would be no contingency of having to let in after-born children.
So, without deeming it necessary to refer to other cases, we are of the opinion that under the will of George H. Chard, his children by Nancy E. Chard took vested remainders in the property at the time of his death, and that the deed of Nancy E. Chard and others to Sadie Cook vested in the latter all the interest in the tract of land which George H. Chard died seized and possessed of. As no question is raised in reference to the mortgage held by Mrs. Chard, of course that is not intended to be affected by what we have just said. The decree of the lower Court will therefore be affirmed.
Decree affirmed, the costs to be paid out of the proceeds ofsale. *658