203 Mass. 249 | Mass. | 1909
The trustees at the death of Mary S. Apthorp, the beneficiary for life, either had received or were entitled to receive as due and payable although not yet collected a sum representing a quarter of the annual income from the estate. But, her death having occurred shortly before the day fixed by them for quarterly payments, the succeeding beneficiary contends that no part of this amount is payable to her administrator. We are of opinion that this position cannot be maintained. In the plan of distribution Mrs. Apthorp received nine fifteenths of the net income, but instead of absolutely fixing the times of
The defendant urges that the decision in Hemenway v. Hemenway, 171 Mass. 42, is decisive against this view. But the cases are clearly distinguishable. In Hemenway v. Hemenway, the testator directed that the income should be paid in equal semiannual payments, “ the first payment thereof to be made at the end of six months next after my death ... to such of the said four persons, namely, my wife and three children, as may be living at the time of payment,” and, the right given having been expressly made dependent upon the times of payment, it was held to have been limited to those in existence on the dates fixed. In the case at bar, the income as we have said was for the life of Mrs. Apthorp, and must be treated as accruing from day to day, although the trustees, who are authorized to pay it oftener, may for their own convenience make the payments quarterly. The
jDecree accordingly.