Court Opinion

ID: 9646551
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:02:48.826284+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:39.455189
License: Public Domain

WALTER, Justice
(dissenting).
I cannot agree with my brethren on their disposition on this case.
They say: “Second, unless the will directs otherwise, income received during administration from the residuary estate goes to the residuary devisees and legatees proportionately, and debts, taxes and expenses of administration are not charged against such income.” They have set forth the correct rule that unless there is a provision to the contrary in Mr. Cogdell’s will, the Marion P. Cogdell Trust and the Charlotte Cogdell Etgen Trust are entitled to income from the date of his death. They have, in effect, rewritten his will and added a provision charging the income from the trusts with the debts, taxes and expenses of administration. In my opinion no such provision is contained in the will. The majority opinion imputes to the testator an intention to so charge the trusts from two provisions which they have quoted from paragraph five of the will. However, in paragraph four, quoted in the original opinion, he first directs that the trustee assign to each trust an undivided ½0 interest in royalty or mineral interest owned by him AT HIS DEATH. The testator is presumed to have known the law that income received during administration by such trusts would not be burdened with the debts, taxes and expenses of administration. It is clear that he did not intend for the trusts to be so burdened or he would have expressly placed such a provision in his carefully drawn will.
I would modify and reform the judgment by providing that the two trusts are entitled to interest at the legal rate from the date they should have received such income and as modified and reformed, I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.