Title: Brundige v. Alexander

State: tennessee

Issuer: Tennessee Supreme Court

Document:

547 S.W.2d 232 (1976) Harold T. BRUNDIGE, Executor, et al., Appellants, v. Addie Ford ALEXANDER et al., Appellees. Supreme Court of Tennessee. October 4, 1976. Harold T. Brundige, William Michael Maloan, Brundige & Maloan, P.C., Martin, for appellants. Bruce Conley, Maness, Conley & Hayes, Union City, for appellees. BROCK, Justice. This is an action to construe a will. On June 22, 1974, Mrs. Betty Condra, testatrix, and her husband, R.W. Condra, were killed when their automobile was struck by a train on a railroad crossing, the circumstances affording no evidence that either survived the other. Mrs. Condra left a will in which she made numerous gifts to churches and individuals and which contained the following residuary clause: The will contains no provision with respect to the disposition to be made of her estate in the event she and her husband should die in a common disaster. Mrs. Condra left no children but Mr. Condra is survived by four children of a prior marriage. These children of Mr. Condra, along with the executor of the will, are the plaintiffs in this action and appellants in this Court. As the surviving issue of Mr. Condra, they claim the residuary estate under Mrs. Condra's will by virtue of the antilapse statute, T.C.A. § 32-306, which provides: To render the foregoing statute applicable, it is, of course, necessary to show that the beneficiary "dies before the testator." To accomplish this, the appellants rely upon another statute, the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, T.C.A. § 31-501 et seq., the pertinent provisions of which are as follows: Defendants assert that the antilapse statute does not apply since there is no evidence that Mrs. Condra, the testatrix, survived the legatee, Mr. Condra, and that the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act affords no presumption that Mrs. Condra survived Mr. Condra. The trial court agreed with this contention of the defendants and decreed accordingly. Whether or not these two statutes should be construed in the manner and with the result urged by the plaintiffs depends upon the legislative intent embodied in each of them. Since both statutes deal with the devolution of property of decedents, we deem them to be in pari materia and will construe them accordingly. See State v. Hughes, Tenn., 512 S.W.2d 552 (1974); Marshall v. Marshall, 25 Tenn. App. 309, 156 S.W.2d 449 (1941); Craft v. Blass, 8 Tenn. App. 498 (1928). With respect to the purpose and effect of the antilapse statute, T.C.A. § 32-306, this Court in Weiss v. Broadway Nat'l Bank, 204 Tenn. 563, 322 S.W.2d 427, 432 (1959) said: It is clear then that this Court is committed to the policy of giving this statute a liberal construction to effect its obvious purposes and objects. We note that this is also the policy followed by most of the jurisdictions which have similar statutes. Mathis v. Mathis, 402 Ill. 60, 83 N.E.2d 270 (1948); Re Finch's Estate, 239 Iowa 1069, 32 N.W.2d 819 (1948); Woolley v. Paxson, 46 Ohio St. 307, 24 N.E. 599 (1889); Hester v. Sammons, 171 Va. 142, 198 S.E. 466 (1938); Re Dodge's Estate, 1 Wis.2d 399, 84 N.W.2d 66, 63 A.L.R.2d 1192 (1957). This Court in White v. Kane, 178 Tenn. 469, 159 S.W.2d 92 (1941) in stating the purpose and policy of this statute, had this to say: At common-law, the general rule is that where several persons perish in a common disaster, notwithstanding differences of age, sex, and physical strength, there is no presumption as to survivorship, but it is a fact to be proved by the party asserting it. It is not presumed at common-law that one individual survived another, or that they died simultaneously, even in the absence of proof that one survived the other. McGhee v. Henry, 144 Tenn. 548, 234 S.W. 509 (1921). Thus, the common-law rule governing the devolution of property of persons who have perished in a common disaster when there is no evidence as to which died first is that the courts will dispose of their property rights as though death occurred to all at the same time. These common-law rules have now been supplanted in this State and in most of the states by the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act. It is true, as insisted by the defendants, that this Act does not afford any presumption as to survivorship between persons killed in a common disaster, Moore v. Palen, 228 Minn. 148, 36 N.W.2d 540, 7 A.L.R.2d 1374 (1949), nor does the Act constitute a rule of evidence. In Re Cruson's Estate, 189 Or. 537, 221 P.2d 892, 20 A.L.R.2d 219 (1950); it is, instead, a rule of substantive law controlling the devolution of the property of persons who die in a common disaster and there is no sufficient evidence that they have died otherwise than simultaneously. There can be no doubt that the Uniform Simultaneous Death Statute applies in this case; indeed, defendants urge its application with respect to certain property held by Mr. and Mrs. Condra as tenants by the entireties, discussed hereinafter. The crucial question is whether or not the antilapse statute is applicable to the case. We hold that it does apply, that the mandate of T.C.A. § 31-502 that "the property of each person shall be disposed of as if he had survived" requires the court in construing Mrs. Condra's will to assume (proceed "as if") that Mr. Condra predeceased Mrs. Condra, the testatrix, thus activating the anti-lapse *235 statute and making it applicable. In our view, the policy and legislative intent of each of these statutes requires this conclusion. To our knowledge, the only other case in which this precise issue has been presented is Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. White, 189 Md. 571, 56 A.2d 824 (1948). Therein, the Maryland court reached the same conclusion as we, and, in the course of their opinion, said: See also In Re Macklin's Will, 177 Misc. 432, 30 N.Y.S.2d 706 (1941). Defendants rely heavily upon Carpenter v. Severin, 201 Iowa 969, 204 N.W. 448, 43 A.L.R. 1340 (1925). That case is not in point, however, because the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act was not in effect and the court necessarily relied upon the common-law rule that when two persons die in a common disaster the property of each should devolve as if both died at the same instant. We conclude, then, that the residuary legacy under Mrs. Condra's will passed to the plaintiffs as the surviving issue of Mr. Condra. At the time of their death, Mr. and Mrs. Condra owned as tenants by the entireties savings certificates worth approximately $40,000.00. Plaintiffs argue that they succeed to Mrs. Condra's interest in these certificates by virtue of the application of the antilapse statute and of T.C.A. § 31-504, another section of the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, to the residuary clause of her will. T.C.A. § 31-504, provides: Appellees agree that T.C.A. § 31-504 applies, but contend that the one-half interest of Mrs. Condra "cannot pass under the provisions of her will, as she received the property as a result of the death of the person named in the residuary clause." They argue that "The anti-lapse statute applies to property only in cases where a will is involved. It does not apply to property that does not pass by will. The jointly owned property did not pass by will, and, therefore, cannot be saved by the anti-lapse statute." The error of this argument is that the one-half interest of Mrs. Condra did not come to her as a result of the death of her husband or because of the simultaneous death statute. Her interest in this particular property, as well as the interest of her husband, came by virtue of the original purchase. The simultaneous death statute has merely dictated that, because of the simultaneous death of the tenants, the interest of each of them shall be distributed in the particular manner provided by the Act, rather than devolve as it would have if one of the tenants actually had survived the other. The usual rule that the interest of a tenant by the entireties cannot be passed by will, Beddingfield v. Estill, 118 Tenn. 39, 100 S.W. 108 (1907); Sloan v. Jones, 192 Tenn. 400, 241 S.W.2d 506, 25 A.L.R.2d 1235 (1951), has no application to this case. Due to the simultaneous death of the tenants, there is no survivor, and, hence, the normal devolution of such property is frustrated. *236 There can be no doubt that T.C.A. § 31-504, controls the disposition of the property held by the decedents as tenants by the entireties; the real issue in this case with respect to the interest of Mrs. Condra in such property is whether it passes under the residuary clause of her will to the surviving issue of Mr. Condra or devolves as intestate property to her distributees. This question is one of first impression in this state. The language employed by Mrs. Condra in the residuary clause of her will, viz., "All of the rest or residue of my estate ...," is broad and inclusive. We hold that it encompasses the one-half (1/2) interest of Mrs. Condra in the savings certificates which T.C.A. § 31-504 directs "shall be distributed as if" she survived Mr. Condra, the residuary legatee. This Court has long been committed to the philosophy expressed by the late Chief Justice Neil in Ledbetter v. Ledbetter, 188 Tenn. 44, 216 S.W.2d 718, 720 (1949): In Fehringer v. Fehringer, 222 Tenn. 585, 439 S.W.2d 258 (1969), language identical to that used in the instant residuary clause was construed. It was held that "`all the rest and residue of my estate' ... not only carries to the residuary legatee such of the testator's property as the testator did not attempt to dispose of by his will `but also such as was not effectively disposed of thereby ... the presumption being that the testator did not intend to die intestate as to any part of his property ...'" p. 262. It is our opinion that the decision we have reached upon this issue is consistent with and required by the views expressed in the Ledbetter and Fehringer cases. See also Page on Wills, Vol. 4, pp. 376-377; 80 Am.Jur.2d, Wills, §§ 1359, 1541, 1543. Of course, it is true that one cannot make a postmortem disposition of property which at the time of his death he did not own, or in which he had no right, legal or equitable. Re Estate of Braman, 435 Pa. 573, 258 A.2d 492. But, such is not the case here. The California Appeals Court has reached a result similar to ours. In In Re Meade's Estate, 228 Cal. App. 2d 169, 39 Cal. Rptr. 278 (1964), a husband and wife were killed simultaneously in an airplane crash. They owned both joint and community property, but each also had a will. It was argued that the effect of the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, dealing with jointly owned property was to convert into intestate assets such jointly held property, and that the wills of the decedents were not effective as to those assets. The California court disagreed and held that the one-half (1/2) interest distributed to the estate of each decedent passed under his or her will. The decree of the trial court is reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion. Costs incurred in this Court will be borne by the appellees. COOPER, C.J., and FONES, HENRY and HARBISON, JJ., concur.