Opinion ID: 1948783
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: the one third-two thirds plan as to nephews and nieces

Text: The evidence is clear that the testator did initially express the wish that his property should ultimately be divided in such manner that approximately one-third would pass to his wife's nephew and two-thirds to his own nieces and nephews. The trust officer and the attorney perhaps sought, in a rather general and wholly unsophisticated way, to carry out this wish. Using round numbers, about one-third of Mr. Ericson's property was placed in the inter vivos trust, one-third allocated to the marital share and one-third to the non-marital trust. In the event that Mrs. Ericson should survive her husband  as in fact occurred  the principal of each of the two trusts ( inter vivos and non-marital) passes upon her death to the testator's nieces and nephews. Presumably Mrs. Ericson's nephew would have been expected to receive, at the time of her death, the one-third portion that this tentative arrangement allocated to her marital share. This three-way division of gross assets was as far as the parties ever went to fulfill this wish of the testator. No steps were taken to discover how much of each of these three shares might be expected ever to reach the ultimate recipients. For instance, no calculations were made to learn the probable impact of death duties and administration expenses or to determine the sufficiency of the non-marital share to meet the totality of these foreseeable outlays. [3] Furthermore, although Mr. Ericson was 75 years old in 1967, it appears to have occurred to no one that he might die within a three-year period. This he in fact did, with the result that the assets in the inter vivos trust are, as we have already pointed out, presumptively includible in his estate both with respect to the federal estate tax and the New Jersey transfer inheritance tax. 26 U.S.C.A. § 2035; N.J.S.A. 54:34-1c. The Internal Revenue Service has already ruled in favor of taxability as to the federal estate tax and that issue is pending on appeal before the United States Tax Court. Death within three years of making the inter vivos trust, foreseeable as it was and fraught as it was with potential tax consequences of great import, appears never to have been taken into account. Thus we find it difficult to attribute any great significance to Mr. Ericson's statement of desire as to the proposed one third-two thirds division. Only vague initial steps  utterly inadequate  were ever taken to achieve this purpose. Nothing further was ever done to implement it. It is pointed out by way of argument that to give effect to the clause in dispute will result in a closer approximation of this intended division than might otherwise be the case. But this is to give controlling significance to what is, in truth, no more than a coincidental fortuity. The argument must otherwise presuppose that the clause in dispute was purposely included as a means of attaining this result. Here, however, not only does the attorney who drew the will disavow any such purpose, but moreover it cannot be seriously argued that a scrivener, intent upon achieving the one third-two thirds division, would have sought to do so in so maladroit a fashion. He would certainly have employed some more direct and appropriate means to accomplish this end.