Court Opinion

ID: 9856663
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:54:53.709344+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:20.151934
License: Public Domain

FRED J. FEDERICI, District Judge (specially concurring). The majority in construing the will holds in part as follows: “It should be remembered that the will directed the trustees to collect the rents, support the niece and send her to business college, support one brother as she had done in the past, pay taxes, upkeep, etc., and put the remaining money into the corpus of the trust which would go to the brothers, thereby showing a clear expectation that such money would pass under the residuary clause of her will along with the proceeds of the real estate going to her brothers, thus clearly indicating a gift of a mixed residue, that is, rental money and the proceeds of the sale of the realty.” I take this to mean as follows, namely, that the trust was created from the residue of the estate and that the trust estate consisted of (1) residuary realty and (2) residuary personalty resulting from unexpended 'income contemplated by the testatrix to be derived from the trust realty. The majority then concludes the opinion by construing the will as follows: “We are of the opinion that a fair construction of the entire will shows the testator desired Miss Wollard and her niece to take the realty and personalty devised to them clear of any charges, as their absolute property, and that the property going to the brothers should 'bear the burden of debts, expenses and taxes if it is sufficient to discharge them.” I take it from this that the testatrix contemplated the “rest, residue and remainder” of her estate as meaning what was left after the payment of debts, legacies, taxes and expenses. If the foregoing was the intention of the testatrix, then any discussion in the majority opinion as to the equitable conversion, of the residuary realty into personalty, and election to take the real estate in specie instead of its proceeds, and the reconversion of the personalty back into realty, becomes mere dicta. The will having been construed by the majority as above set out, I concur in the result reached on the grotmd that if there is-insufficient residuary personalty to pay estate debts, then resort may be had to the residuary realty.