Court Opinion

ID: 9532125
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:18:24.424116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:40.959906
License: Public Domain

SCHAUER, J.
I dissent. It is my view that under the circumstances shown here the directions to the decedent’s nephew Collias should be regarded as mandatory. Collias is named in the will both as a devisee and as executor. I think *591the intent of the testator, fairly to he derived from the will, is that Collias is to act as executor of the will to handle all of the estate; that the devise to him is to facilitate his handling of the property and carrying out of the testator’s plan; that such plan envisages ultimate vesting of only a one-half interest in his own right in the nephew and the distribution of the other half “in equal shares to all my close relatives in Greece.”
The same method is used by the testator in respect to securing the desired handling and distribution of the property in Greece as in America. He directs, “It is my desire and wish that my nephew Argirios Collias will give half of my estate to my nearest relative heir in Greece instructing him or her to distribute said half of my estate in equal shares to all my close relatives in Greece.” Clearly the testator in directing his executor to “give” the one-half interest to his “nearest relative heir in Greece” did not intend such heir to take the entire share in his own right; the “giving” was for the purpose of convenient handling and distribution. The same intent appears in the language “giving” the estate to Collias; it was bequeathed to him to facilitate his carrying out of the testator’s plan and the discharge of his duties as executor.
For further discussion reference is made to the opinion of Justice McComb, and the concurring opinion of Presiding Justice Moore, for the District Court of Appeal, reported at Estate of Collias, (Cal.App.) 225 P.2d 550, 551, and for the reasons therein and hereinabove stated I would modify and affirm the decree as ordered by the District Court of Appeal.