Court Opinion

ID: 9593083
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:19:17.741534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:17:28.259081
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE RUSSELL, with whom JUSTICE STEPHENSON joins,
dissenting.
The principles of law that govern cases of this kind are well settled: the testator’s intention, if legal and ascertainable, controls. All refinements of the law must yield to the testator’s power to dispose of his property as he pleases. When this intention is ascertained, the quest is ended and all other rules become immaterial. Picot v. Picot, 237 Va. 686, 689, 379 S.E.2d 364, 366 (1989) (quoting Wornom v. Hampton N. & A. Inst., 144 Va. 533, 541, 132 S.E. 344, 347 (1926)). In ascertaining the testator’s intention, the court must examine the will as a whole, giving effect to all its parts if that can be done. Thomas v. Copenhaver, 235 Va. 124, 128, 365 S.E.2d 760, 763 (1988). The intention to be considered is that which is spoken by the words of the will, not an intention deduced from speculation as to what the testator would have done had he anticipated a change in the circumstances surrounding him *540at the time of its execution. Christian v. Wilson’s Ex’rs, 153 Va. 614, 632, 151 S.E. 300, 305 (quoting Compton v. Rixey’s Ex’ors, 124 Va. 548, 553, 98 S.E. 651, 654 (1919)), cert. denied, 282 U.S. 840 (1930).
The will of Dr. Sturgis is unambiguous and his overall intention is clear from its words. He wanted his widow to enjoy all income arising from his estate during her lifetime. If she should experience unusual expenses, or if the income of his estate, together with any “other income available to [his widow]” should prove insufficient to provide for her “comfortable maintenance and welfare,” then the co-executor was authorized to invade the corpus to the extent necessary, in the co-executor’s discretion, to bring the widow’s income up to that standard. At the widow’s death, if she should not sooner renounce the income, the corpus of the estate was to pass to his two children. That, in a nutshell, is the intent of Dr. Sturgis as expressed in his words, and that is the way the trial court construed his will.
Unfortunately, the majority opinion appears to be based upon the notion that when Dr. Sturgis wrote paragraph six, he had forgotten paragraph four. The opinion considers the two provisions in isolation, rather than construing the will as a whole. Indeed, the opinion goes so far as to say that the executor’s power to invade the corpus “has nothing whatever to do with the issues framed on this appeal.”
When Dr. Sturgis executed his will, he knew what his assets were. He knew that some parts of his estate produced substantial income, which would primarily benefit his widow, and that other parts would produce little income, but would constitute a substantial inheritance for his children. When he spoke of “my estate,” he necessarily contemplated that combination of income-producing and non-income-producing assets. If he had intended that his executors convert all his assets into investments producing high income, he could easily have said so. Rather, he provided that his widow receive “the income of my estate.”
Land is not fungible. It is idle to speculate as to the testator’s reason for retaining the farm as a part of his estate, for his children’s benefit, rather than directing his executors to convert it into income-producing investments. The fact remains, however, that for his own reasons, he did so. He could have sold it during his lifetime, as his parents before him might have done, but he did not. Despite its deficiency as a producer of income, the farm was a *541part of the estate which passed under the will and which he contemplated as one of the sources of income for his widow.
Construed according to the testator’s clear intentions, the co-executor had authority to sell timber from the farm, or to sell or encumber the land, in whole or in part, as might be necessary to maintain the widow comfortably, but not otherwise. That view is reinforced by the circumstances surrounding the testator at the time of execution of his will. Mrs. Sturgis was not the mother of Dr. Sturgis’ children; they were the children of a prior marriage. Mrs. Sturgis came into the marriage with income-producing assets of her own, and it was not apparent that it would ever become necessary to invade the corpus to maintain her comfortably. As it turned out, the co-executor determined that she did need additional income by the time this suit was instituted, and the trial court ruled that the co-executor should invade the corpus as necessary for that purpose.
In my view, paragraph six of the will merely arms the executors with all the powers requisite to carry into effect the intent expressed in paragraph four. Paragraph six does not require the executors to do anything. It certainly does not authorize them, or us, to disregard the clear intent of the testator, to treat land as if it were stocks and bonds, or to require conversion of the land into income-producing assets to the detriment of the testator’s children.
Accordingly, I would affirm.