Court Opinion

ID: 9564847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:09:16.689549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:10.160723
License: Public Domain

Buchanan, J.,
concurring in the result:
The opinion states that there is conflict of authority as to what facts and circumstances the chancellor should consider in deciding to renounce or not renounce the will for an incompetent, under the powers inherent in equity and not derived from a statute.
Between the courts on the one side which hold that the value of the estate should be the dominant consideration and those on the other which hold that weight should be given to various other considerations, the opinion quotes from 57 Am. Jur., Wills, section 1528, page 1039, the statement that there is general agreement that while monetary advantage is a strong reason for electing to renounce, it is not conclusive, and that “ultimately, that choice is to be made which will be for the best interests of the incompetent in the light of all the facts and circumstances shown. ’ ’
The opinion seems to approve that principle. It says: “What is for the ward’s best interest is recognized as being the goal to be attained.” Nevertheless, the opinion concludes that just what precise consideration should have moved the court to its action in this case need not be decided. That is because, as I understand, the court must either renounce or not renounce, and if it renounces, then the incompetent must take what the statute gives, no more and no less; but if it refuses to renounce, *753that is the end of the matter and the incompetent mnst take what the will gives, no more and no less.
I think the holding in that respect puts a mnch too narrow limit on the factors to he considered by the court in exercising its discretion to renounce or not renounce. In effect it denies that the ward’s best interest is the goal to be attained; and certainly it repudiates the principle that the choice to be made is the one which will be for the best interests of the incompetent “in the light of all the facts and circumstances shown.” In practice, it leaves no discretion in the court other than to decide the simple problem in arithmetic of whether the incompetent will get more by taking what the will gives or what the statute gives. The court must decide that question alone, shut off from “the light of all the facts and circumstances shown.”
.A fact and circumstance in this case, which the opinion holds the court was not entitled to consider, was the offer of certain beneficiaries of the will to surrender for the use of the widow during her life the $129,994 given to them by the will. Those beneficiaries asserted that it would be better for the widow that the court accept that offer and not renounce the will than to reject it and renounce the will. I do not think that it has been convincingly demonstrated in the record before us that that is true. It clearly appears from the opinion that there is substantial ground for concluding that it is not true. On the showing made, I think the offer should have been rejected and that renunciation on behalf of the widow should have been made by the court. The case should, I think, be reversed on that ground, but not on the ground that the court in this or any similar ease should not consider all the facts and circumstances in exercising its discretion in so serious a task. Cases may well arise in which there would be not the slightest doubt that it would be to the interests of the incompetent to accept an arrangement offered by other beneficiaries of the will rather than to renounce the will.
It is true that we have been cited to no case in which that has been done, but neither have we been cited to any holding that it should not be done. In the administration of remedies, an equity court is not bound by the strict rules of the common law, but adapts its relief and molds its decrees to satisfy the requirements of the case. Its purpose is the accomplishment of justice, and it will administer such relief as the exigencies of *754the case demand. The absence of precedents, or novelty in incident, presents no obstacle to the exercise of its jurisdiction. 19 Am. Jur., Equity, § 123, p. 123; 30 C.J.S., Equity, § 12, p. 331; Alexander v. Hillman, 296 U. S. 222, 56 S. Ct. 204, 80 L. ed. 192; Chapman v. Sheridan-Wyoming Coal Co., 338 U. S. 621, 70 S. Ct. 392, 94 L. ed. 393; Baker Sand & Gravel Co. v. Rogers P. & H. Co., 228 Ala. 612, 154 So. 591, 102 A. L. R. 346.
“ ‘Equitable remedies * * are distinguished by their flexibility, their unlimited variety, their adaptability to circumstances, and the natural rules which govern their use. There is in fact no limit to their variety and application; the court of equity has the power of devising its remedy and shaping it so as to fit the changing* circumstances of every case and the complex relations of all the parties.’ ” Turner v. Citizens Bank, 111 Va. 184, 192, 68 S. E. 407, 409.
If a will is to be renounced or not renounced, according to what is best for the incompetent, I can see no reason why the court’s discretion should not be exercised in the full light of all the facts and circumstances, rather than within the arbitrary limits of what the will gives and what the statute gives. I do not believe that either principle or precedent requires that a court of equity shall not consider an offer of the kind made in this case in deciding for or against renunciation in behalf of the incompetent, or prevents acceptance of such an offer if acceptance will benefit the incompetent more than a renunciation of the will.
Hudgins, C. J., joins in this opinion.