Case Name: PARK LAKE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Appellant, v. ESTATE OF Albert A. HENRY, Mary Elizabeth Larrabee, and Mary Louise Roberts, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1958-11-05
Citations: 106 So. 2d 215
Docket Number: No. 197
Parties: PARK LAKE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Appellant, v. ESTATE OF Albert A. HENRY, Mary Elizabeth Larrabee, and Mary Louise Roberts, Appellees.
Judges: ALLEN, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 106
Pages: 215–224

Head Matter:
PARK LAKE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Appellant, v. ESTATE OF Albert A. HENRY, Mary Elizabeth Larrabee, and Mary Louise Roberts, Appellees.
No. 197.
District Court of Appeal of Florida. Second District.
Nov. 5, 1958.
Akerman, Dial & Akerman, Orlando, for appellant.
Felder & Bettinghaus, Winter Park, for appellees.

Opinion:
KANNER, Chief Judge.
Construction of the will of Albert A. Henry, now deceased, is here sought with reference to certain bequests of stock as set forth in Items VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XII of his last will and testament, the object of this appeal being determination of whether these items represent general or demonstrative bequests. The judgment of the probate court from which this appeal is taken is that they are demonstrative and that these items should abate after the general legacies. Appellant is Park Lake Presbyterian Church of Orlando, Florida, which, under Item IV, as a general legatee, was bequeathed the sum of $10,000. At the time of testator's death, he possessed the shares of corporate stock in amounts equal to or more than those bequeathed.
The subject bequests are all of corporate stock, such as Gulf Oil Corporation stock, Sears Roebuck and Company stock, The Pennsylvania Railroad Company stock; and the context of the items enunciating these bequests is identical except for the names of the respective beneficiaries, the designations of the stock, and the number of shares bequeathed to each of the beneficiaries.
The four principal classifications under which legacies may be grouped are specific, general, demonstrative, and residuary. This court is concerned only with the general and demonstrative classifications. The parties on both sides of this appeal agree that the legacies come under neither of the other two classifications. By way of definition, however, in order to clarify the respective characteristics of each classification and thus to place focus more definitively upon the general and demonstrative types, it may be pointed out that a specific legacy is a gift of a particular thing or of a specified part of the testator's estate so described as to be capable of distinguishment from all others of the same kind. 96 C.J.S. Wills § 1125(d), p. 878; 57 Am.Jur., Wills, section 1401, p. 935; and Page on Wills, Volume 4, section 1394, p. 112. A residuary legacy is a general legacy wherein fall all the assets of the estate after all other legacies have been satisfied and all charges, debts, and costs have been paid. Redfearn, Wills and Administration of Estates in Florida, 3rd Edition, Volume 1, Ch. 12, section 146, p. 233; and 57 Am.Jur. Wills, section 1415, pp. 946-947.
Fundamentally, a court's interpretation of any integral part of a will must be based upon the total will and construed solely in the light of the testator's intent gathered from the complete testament. A court may not by conjecture or surmise, in construing certain bequests, redraft or alter the will of a testator but must be governed in its interpretation by the language of the instrument as a whole.
However, determination of the problem under consideration requires a scrutiny of the characteristics constituting a general legacy and a demonstrative legacy.
A general legacy is one which may be satisfied out of the general assets of the testator's estate instead of from any specific fund, thing, or things. It does not consist oí a gift of a particular thing or fund or part of the estate distinguished and set apart from others of its kind and subject to precise identification. A general legacy has a prerequisite of designation by quantity or amount. The gift may be either of money or other personal property. 57 Am.Jur. Wills § 1402, p. 936; and 96 C.J.S. Wills, § 1125(e), pp. 881-882. See also Volume 18 Words & Phrases, General Legacy, pp. 394-410. A bequest of a certain number of shares of stock, bonds, and the like, described by the corporation, ob-ligor, and the like, or by value or quantity, but not indicating any specific lot of such securities, is a general legacy in the absence of contrary testatorial intention. Page on Wills, Volume 4, ch. 37, section 1397, p. 122; and 96 C.J.S. Wills § 1129 (b), pp. 895-898.
A demonstrative legacy is a bequest of a certain sum of money, stock, or other property payable out of a particular fund, property, or security; but it cannot constitute a gift of the corpus, nor can it show a purpose of releasing the general estate from liability in the event the particular fund, property, or security should fail. Two -essential components of a demonstrative legacy are that it be an unconditional gift in the nature of a general legacy and that it indicate the fund out of which the legacy is to be satisfied. 96 C. J.S. Wills § 1125(e, f), pp. 882-884 ; 57 Am.Jur. Wills § 1403, p. 937; Redfearn, Wills and Administration of Estates in Florida, 3rd Edition, Volume 1, Ch. 12, section 146, p. 232; Page on Wills, Volume 4, sections 1398 and 1399, pp. 128-133 ; and Volume 12 Words & Phrases, Demonstrative Legacy, pp. 55-70.
A typical example of a demonstrative legacy is a pecuniary bequest of a specified sum to be paid out of particular securities owned by the testator, as in a gift of $1,000 to be paid out of a specified corporate stock. 57 Am.Jur. Wills section 1403, pp. 937-938. A typical example of a general legacy may be seen in the ordinary pecuniary bequest of specified sums of money and in a bequest of securities by quantity. 57 Am.Jur. Wills § 14-02, pp. 936, 937.
We emphasize that it is generally recognized that a demonstrative legacy is distinguished from a general legacy by a clear and unmistakable line of demarcation which sets apart a demonstrative legacy as one which is dependent upon a particular fund or a particular property for payment or discharge, and which cannot amount to a gift of the corpus. Annotation, 73 A.L. R. 1252; and 57 Am.Jur. Wills section 1403, pp. 937-938.
With these definitions and characteristics in mind, it is well to consider the context of the subject bequests as these principles may apply, evaluating and analyzing the same as they may bear upon the instant case. The bequests under consideration here were all of corporate stock and all were worded in the following manner:
'T hereby give and bequeath to (legatee's name) (number) shares of (name of stock) stock. In the event said stock has been sold, then, I hereby give and bequeath to (legatee's name) an amount of cash equal to the value, at the time of my death, of said stock."
In the Florida case, In re McDougald's Estate, 1942, 149 Fla. 468, 6 So.2d 274, it was held by the Supreme Court that a legacy was general where the testator bequeathed designated shares of corporate stock. In that case the Supreme Court said:
"A general bequest is one not segregated or withdrawn from the estate under the terms of the will but is to be paid in money or property as the latter directs
It may be noted that the language of the bequest in the McDougald case is strikingly similar to that in the instant case except for the alternative feature:
" T give to my stepdaughter Mabel E. Chase of Tampa, Florida, 15 shares of stock in Goodall Worsted Company; also 15 shares of stock in Goodall Securities Company; and also 5 shares of Preferred Stock in Tampa Gas Company.' "
It may be also noted that the two cases which follow, although not parallel factually to the present case, interestingly fit in with the other authorities utilized toward solution of the problem.
An alternative feature may be observed in the case of In re Beecroft's Estate, 1933, 146 Misc. 344, 263 N.Y.S. 142, at page 144, wherein the court held as general legacies certain bequests typified by a pecuniary legacy to the testator's daughter of $20,000 with direction to his trustees to turn over to her, in making payment thereof, in lieu of cash, certain stocks or securities which he might then have in the corporations therein specifically mentioned, at a value based upon the market price thereof at .the time of payment. The court pointed out that this alternative for payment of the legacy in certain securities instead of in cash does not make the bequest demonstrative, since the testator did not point out a particular fund out of which the legacy was to be satisfied, but that the testator merely intended that if he died possessed of certain enumerated securities, his executors could avoid liquidation and pay in kind rather than in cash.
In the case of Industrial Trust Co. v. Tidd, 1928, 49 R.I. 188, 141 A. 464-465, we again find an alternative bequest in certain legacies of stock having a par value of $2,000 willed by testatrix with the provision, "if she does not desire to take said stock I give and bequeath to her the sum of $2,000.00 in money in place of said stock." The court stated that these bequests were general pecuniary gifts of $2,-000.00 in favor of the beneficiaries and not adeemed by act -of the testatrix in parting with the stock:
"In the will before us we find the unmistakable indication of an intention to make a gift to each of these legatees of the value of $2,000. To make that intention more emphatic, the testatrix has added the provision that, as to each of the legatees, if she does not wish to take the stock, the testatrix makes a bequest to her of $2,000 in money in place of the stock."
Testatrix, at the time of her death, owned none of the stock. Then, as in the instant case, the testatrix made a restatement or reemphasis of her purpose through an alternative bequest.
It appears to this court that in the instant case the testator intended simply to give the corpus of certain corporate stock holdings, respectively, to certain individuals; but in the event he decided prior to his death to dispose of any or all of his shares of the various stock designations, he designed an alternative bequest worded so as to be of equivalent effect. The fact that the restatement of his intent was also, in effect, a restatement of what would have eventuated had the alternative expression been omitted, seems to this court merely an emphasizing of his objective as well as an emphasizing of the legal effect of the testamentary gifts as general legacies. Under the ordinary rule the legal effect is that a general legacy of stocks, bonds, or other securities must be satisfied out of the general assets notwithstanding that at his death the testator owned less than all, or none, of the securities described in the will. Re McFerren's Estate, 1950, 365 Pa. 490, 76 A.2d 759, 22 A.L.R.2d 451, Annotation 458, 459. So it is seen that the alternative feature is nothing but a statement of the law applicable to a general legacy. It is simply a measuring vessel by which the beneficiary would receive the equivalent of the gift intended by the testator.
It seems abundantly clear to this court that the end result of the initial sentence of the bequest is in each of the subject items equivalent in effect to that of its alternative as enunciated in the second sentence. Had the testator intended these bequests to abate after the general legacies, this could have been accomplished through the simple expedient of adding but a few words, such as "payable from proceeds of sale of said stock", or testator could have specified payment out of a particular fund or property.
We conclude that the alternative portions of the bequests do not manifest an intent on the part of the testator to take the gifts of the respective shares of stock out of the general into the demonstrative category. The legacies involved must be adjudged as general and should abate along with the other general legacies contained in the will. See Section 734.06, Florida Statutes, F.S.A. The judgment of the court below, therefore, is hereby reversed and remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
Reversed.
ALLEN, J., concurs.