55 N.J. Eq. 410 | New York Court of Chancery | 1897
The complainant files her bill as executrix, setting forth the will. She claims that under the words of the will, “ I give and bequeath to my dear wife, Martha Torrey, all of this world’s
The position assumed by the complainant as absolute owner denies any trust, either as executor or because of the added words of confidence &c. in the above-quoted clause of the will. The argument of complainant’s counsel is on the same line, claiming for Mrs. Torrey an absolute estate in fee-simple in the testator’s lands.
Here is a statement of a dispute confined wholly to conflicting claims between different parties, each asserting a purely legal estate in lands, one as devisee in fee, the other as heir-at-law.
The power of courts of equity to construe devises of real estate is limited to such dispositions as create or involve the creation of trusts. So far as a will of real property devises purely legal estates, and the devisees therein obtain purely legal titles to land, their enforcement belongs to the courts of law. Pom. Eq. Jur. § 1155.
The jurisdiction exercised by courts of equity in construing devises of lands is incidental to its general jurisdiction over trusts and the performance or enforcement of trusts, either express or implied; and a suit in equity of this character can only be maintained by some party directly interested in the trust under the will, and not by a devisee of a mere legal title. Pom. Eq. Jur. § 1156.
In Youmans v. Youmans, 11 C. E. Gr. 149, a bill was filed by executors for construction and directions in the exercise of a power of sale of so much land as might be necessary to settle the estate, and was entertained.
In these cases, so far as the question of title to lands was brought before the court, it came as necessarily attendant upon the determination of a dispute involving some branch of undoubted equitable jurisdiction for direction or restraint in' the exercise of a trust or trust power.
In the lata case of Dunn v. Casperson, 15 Stew. Eq. 91, a construction of a devise was refused to an administrator cum testamento, upon the declared ground that, as administrator with the will annexed, he had nothing to do with the construction of the devises in the will.
In New York the doctrine was explicitly declared by Chancellor Walworth, in the leading case of Bowers v. Smith, 10 Paige 199, that neither the heirs-at-law nor the devisees who claim mere legal estates in the testator’s real property, can file a
In Onderdonk v. Mott, 34, Barb. 112, the supreme court of New York, sitting in equity, determined that the difficulty of want of jurisdiction in equity to construe a will at the instance of a devisee claiming a mere legal estate in real property, was insuperable, if it existed, even if not raised by the opposing party.
The court of appeals of New York, in Bailey v. Briggs, 56 N. Y. 413, approved of lhe doctrine as stated in .Bowers v. Smith, ubi supra, holding the jurisdiction to be incidental to that over trusts. This view has been consistently supported by the court of last resort in New York, in Chipman v. Montgomery, 63 N. Y. 230, and Post v. Hover, 33 N. Y. 602.
In Dill v. Wisner, 88 N. Y. 160, the court of appeals declared that the right of an executor to sue “ for construction of a will of real estate depends entirely upon the question whether he is invested with a trust under the will in reference to the subject-matter of the devise, and it is only in such cases that a court of equity, on the assumption of its right of supervision over trusts and trustees, will assume jurisdiction.”
There are some decisions which appear to extend the equitable jurisdiction so as to include cases where the terms of a devise are difficult or doubtful, or of contested validity, irrespective of the existence of any trust relating to the property. Most of these cases will, however, be found to present some question of undoubted equity jurisdiction and to have brought in the determination of the legal title to lands as necessarily incidental to the equitable relief sought.
The generally-accepted doctrine is that above declared, and is consistent with the long-established rule that the forum in which to settle the legal title to lands is a court of law.
In the case under consideration the bill is filed by the complainant as executrix, but she shows no trust or other duty cast upon her as executrix, touching which she might ask to be instructed. As executrix she has neither title to lands of the testator nor any other interest in them. She shows no right as executrix to ask for the construction of this will, and she asks
In the premises of her bill she alleges that she is a devisee in fee of the lands of the testator and that the heirs-at-law deny her claim, and here she asks what is really sought by the bill, namely, a construction of the terms of the will as to what is included within the words “ I give &c. to my dear wife &c. all of this world’s goods ” &c., alleging that these words sufficiently describe a devise of all the testator’s real estate.
Assuming that the complainant is, as she asserts, the absolute owner as devisee of the lands of the testator, she asks a court of equity to construe a devise in a will which she alleges passes to her a purely legal estate. She seeks this relief against heirs-at-law, whose estate in the decedent’s lands must be a legal estate.
Upon the case presented by the complainant’s bill her remedy should be sought at law and not in equity.