Court Opinion

ID: 9702871
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:28:27.492811+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:42.493972
License: Public Domain

*528Dissenting Opinion by
Me. Justice Bell:
The majority has rewritten testator’s will. Testator directed his executors after the payment of debts, etc., to distribute the residue to and among the following named persons and/or corporations as hereinafter bequeathed : “To Martha G. Michael, the sum of Two thousand dollars, ($2,000.00) free of all taxes, absolutely. To Laura Sand, the sum of One hundred dollars ($100) free of all taxes; To The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, its successors and assigns the sum of Ten thousand dollars ($10,000.00) free of all taxes, absolutely.” These are three examples of twenty similar gifts. To say that this experienced probate lawyer did not know the difference between (on the one hand) twenty-three pecuniary gifts each in a specified dollar amount, and each followed by the words “free of all taxes”, with (on the other hand) a gift to each legatee of a percentage of his residuary estate is so far-fetched as in my judgment to be incomprehensible. The majority (1) ignores or renders meaningless the clause at the end of each pecuniary gift “free of all taxes” and makes the legatee pay his share of all taxes, and (2) then changes the words Two thousand dollars ($2000) etc., to “a percentage” — words as different as day and night. A Court certainly should not rewrite a testator’s will when the dispositive language is so clear, and the Court’s “rewrite” must replace day with night.
The blank space in the will was obviously left open by the testator for a later insertion by him of additional legacies, which the majority admit testator actually made. After the will was written testator concededly added a legacy in the blank space: “To Miss Laura Sand, of 5321 Wayne Avenue, Germantown, Philadelphia, the sum of Two hundred and fifty dollars ($250), free of taxes and absolutely in appreciation of her many kind acts from time to time.”
*529Furthermore, we note that the majority’s reliance upon the presumption that a testator intends to dispose of his entire estate and not to die intestate is ineffective when met as here with the equally important and “legally-equal” presumption that an heir is not to be disinherited except by plain words or necessary implications: Bigony Estate, 397 Pa. 102, 152 A. 2d 901. Even more important the presumption relied upon by the majority is overcome completely by the testator’s clear language of a specific pecuniary dollar gift which cannot be distorted into a “percentage” gift. Even a layman, let alone an experienced probate lawyer, knows that there is a tremendous difference between a legacy of $10,000 or $5,000 or $100 and a percentage of l/10th of 1%, 10%, 5%, etc.
I would affirm the decree on the very able opinion of President Judge Ejlein.