Home for Incurables v. Noble

by Edward Douglass White

United States Supreme Court

172 U.S. 383

Home for Incurables  v.  Noble

Mary E. Ruth died on the 16th of June, 1892, having, on the 1st day of the same month and year, executed both a will and a codicil. After revoking all previous wills and codicils, and directing the payment of debts and funeral expenses, the will bequeathed all the real, personal, or mixed property to the American Security & Trust Company for the benefit of a granddaughter, Sophia Yuengling Huston, during her natural life. On the death of the granddaughter, the will provided that the trust should end, and that it should be the duty of the trustee to pay over to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania the sum of $5,000 for purposes stated, and to deliver all the 'residue and remainder of the estate, of whatever kind,' to the Home for Incurables, to which corporation such residue was bestowed for a stated object. The codicil unquestionably gave to Emeline Colville a bequest of $5,000. The will and codicil are printed in full in the margin. ^[1]

In October, 1895, the American Security & Trust Company, alleging the death of the granddaughter nd the termination of the trust, filed a bill to obtain a construction of the will and codicil, to the end that it might be enabled to distribute the estate, and thus be legally discharged from all obligations in the premises. The bill charged that, considering the will and codicil together, there was uncertainty whether the $5,000 given by the codicil to Mrs. Colville revoked the bequest in favor of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, or substituted Mrs. Colville, in whole or only in part, in the place and stead of the Home for Incurables, as to the gift in the will to that institution.

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the Home for Incurables, Emeline Colville, and the heirs at law of the decedent were made parties to the bill. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, by its answer, denied that there was any ambiguity in the will in regard to the bequest made to it, and averred that such bequest was in no wise impaired by the codicil. The Home for Incurables, although conceding by its answer that there was an ambiguity arising from the will and codicil considered in juxtaposition, yet alleged that the codicil did not in any respect diminish the bequest and devise of the residuum made to it by the will, or, if it did, operated to do so only to the amount of $5,000. Emeline Colville, by her answer, while admitting that there was ambiguity in the will and codicil considered together, averred that such ambiguity was patent, and was resolvable by settled rules of construction. She averred that, applying such rules, it was clear that the codicil operated to revoke the bequest and devise of the residuum of the estate made in favor of the Home for Incurables, and had substituted Mrs. Colville as the residuary devisee after the payment of the amount of the bequest in favor of the Pennsylvania institution. The heirs at law, by their answer, while admitting that the codicil gave Emeline Colville $5,000, also asserted that the gift of the residue made by the will, in favor of the Home for Incurables, was revoked by the codicil, and, therefore, that after payment of the legacy of $5,000 given to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a like amount due to Mrs. Colville under the codicil, the remainder of the estate passed to them, since as to such remainder the decedent was intestate.

The trial court found that the codicil gave Emeline Colville $5,000, and substituted her to the bequest made in favor of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; hence it decreed Mrs. Colville entitled to the $5,000, and that the Pennsylvania corporation took nothing. It further decreed that the other provision of the will-that is, the disposition of the residuary estate in favor of the Home for Incurables-was unaffected by the codicil.

The court of appeals, to which the controversy was taken, while agreeing that the codicil gave Mrs. Colville $5,000, and that she was entitled to this sum, held (the chief justice dissenting) that the effect of the codicil was to revoke the bequest and devise of the residuum in favor of the Home for Incurables, and, therefore, that Mrs. Ruth, as to the entire remainder of her estate, after paying the legacies to the University of Pennsylvania and Mrs. Colville, had died intestate; consequently, that the residue of the estate should be distributed among the heirs at law. 10 App. D. C. 56.

Geo. H. Yeamant and J. Spalding Flannery, for Home for incurables. Henry P. Blair, for Hospital of University of Pennsylvania. Henry Thompson, for Colville. H. Randall Webb and John Sidney Webb, for Noble and others. Wm. A. McKenney, for American Security & Trust Co.

Mr. Justice WHITE, after making the foregoing statement, delivered the opinion of the court.

Notes

1. I, Mary Eleanor Ruth, residing in the city of Washington and the District of Columbia, being of sound and disposing mind and memory, do make and publish and declare this to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking and making null and void any and all former wills and codicils by me at any time made.

First. I direct my executor hereinafter named to first pay out of my estate my funeral expenses and all just debts.

Second. I give, devise, and bequeath all of my estate, real, personal, or mixed, whether in possession, reversion, or remainder, now acquired or hereafter to be acquired, and wheresoever situate, to the 'American Security and Trust Company' of Washington City, District of Columbia, its successors and assigns, in trust, nevertheless, for the following uses and purposes only, that is to say:

To invest and to reinvest the proceeds of my said estate in its discretion, from time to time, in any of the following classes of securities; that is, either in United States bonds, or in municipal or state bonds, or in first mortgage bonds of dividend paying railroads, or in loans secured by first trusts upon real estate in the District of Columbia, said loans not to exceed three-fourths market value of said real estate; and to pay over so much of the annual income from said investments and reinvestments to the guardian or guardians of my granddaughter, Sophia Yuengling Huston, as may be sufficient to provide for her maintenance, education, and support until she becomes of the full age of twenty-one years, after which period the entire income so annually r ceived from said investments and reinvestments shall be paid over by said trustee to my said granddaughter, for her sole use and benefit for and during the period of her natural life: Provided, however, that the income thus provided for my said granddaughter for and during

the term of her natural life shall sooner cease and determine at any time when it is ascertained by my said trustee that any part of my said income shall have been given by said granddaughter, or in any wise expended by or through her, for the use or benefit or Robert J. Huston, from whom her mother, my daughter, obtained a divorce, with custody of said Sophia Yuengling Huston given absolutely to her said mother. In case the income shall so cease and determine before the death of my said granddaughter, then said income, and all accumulations thereof, and the entire principal of said trust estate, shall be disposed of as provided in the next succeeding item of this my last will and testament.

I further authorize my aforesaid trustee to sell any portion of the estate herein conveyed to it in trust as aforesaid, and to invest and reinvest the proceeds as hereinbefore provided, giving to purchasers good and sufficient deeds or other evidences of title, without obligation upon the part of said purchasers to see to the application of the purchase money.

Third. In the event of the death of my said granddaughter, Sophia Yuengling Huston, or of the occurrence of the prior contingency for the determination of said trust hereinbefore provided in item two, then the trust hereinbefore created and vested in the American Security and Trust Company shall cease and be determined, and so much of my said estate shall thereupon be conveyed and delivered over by said American Security and Trust Company to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as amounts to five thousand dollars; said five thousand dollars to be used by said hospital to endow and forever maintain a first-class perpetual bed in said hospital in the city of Philadelphia, said bed to be in the name and memory of my beloved son, Malancthon Love Ruth.

All the residue and remainder of my said estate, of whatever kind, after the payment of said five thousand dollars for the establishment of said perpetual bed in said hospital, I give, devise, and bequeath to the 'Home for Incurables,' at Fordham, New York City, in the state of New York, its successors and assigns, forever, to be used by said Home for Incurables to endow and forever maintain one or more beds in said home in the name and memory of my beloyed son, Malancthon Love Ruth.

Fourth. I nominate and appoint Mary Robinson Wright, wife of J. Hood Wright, of New York City, and Mary Robinson Markle, wife of John Markle, of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and the survivors of them, to be the guardians or guardian of the property and the person of my said granddaughter, Sophia Yuengling Huston, they and each of them being my valued friends, and having consented to act in that behalf.

Fifth. I hereby nominate and appoint the American Security and

Trust Company of Washington City, District of Columbia, to be the sole executor of my estate.

I, Mary Eleanor Ruth, being of sound and disposing mind and memory and understanding, do make and publish this codicil to my last will and testament: I hereby revoke and annul the bequest therein made by me to the Home for Incurables at Fordham, New York City, in the state of New York; and I hereby give and bequeath the five thousand dollars (heretofore in my will bequeathed to said Home for Incurables) to my friend Emeline Colville, the widow of Samuel Colville, now living in New York City, said bequest being on account of her kindness to my son and myself during his and my illness and my distress.

In witness whereof, I have hereto affixed my name, this first day of June, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and I in all other things ratify and affirm my said will.