Gilbert v. Gilbert
| Decision Date | 08 June 1905 |
| Citation | 103 N.W. 789,127 Iowa 568 |
| Parties | E. C. GILBERT, Executor of the Will of L. S. GILBERT, Deceased, Appellee, v. GEORGE GILBERT AND OTHERS, Appellants |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Keokuk District Court.-- HON. JOHN T. SCOTT, Judge.
Affirmed.
A. C Steck and Brown & Wilcockson, for appellants.
Stockman & Hamilton, for appellee.
THE opinion states the case.-- Affirmed.
On January 6, 1896, L. S. Gilbert, a resident of Keokuk county executed the will hereinafter set out. At that date his wife, Margaret Gilbert, was living, as were also her two daughters and four sons, children of their marriage, and one grandson, the only child of a deceased daughter. The wife, Margaret Gilbert, died intestate May 7, 1900, and her death was followed by that of the testator in the following October. At the date of the will and at his death the testator was seised of about 248 acres of land, together with some personal estate. Doubt having arisen as to the true meaning and legal effect of the will, this action was instituted to secure its construction
The instrument is in the following words:
I, Loring S. Gilbert, of Harper, in the township of Lafayette in the county of Keokuk and State of Iowa being eighty years of age, and of sound mind and memory do make, publish and declare this my last will and testament in the manner following to-wit:
1. I give and bequeath to my wife, Margaret Gilbert, the southeast one fourth of section No. twenty, (20) township No. seventy-six, range ten west and also eight acres of timber in section No. twenty-two (22), township seventy-six, (76) range eleven (11) west of the fifth principal meridian, all in Keokuk county, State of Iowa. Also all my personal property except my watch and goldheaded cane.
2. After my wife's decease I desire to have all my real and personal property which may be left after the payment of all my honest debts to be sold and the proceeds divided as follows viz: I give to my daughter, Ansylvania White or her children the sum of one thousand (1000) dollars, to my daughter, Katherine Farley, or her children, the sum of one thousand (1000) dollars, to Lucian Case the sum of five (5) dollars; the balance of my property, both real and personal, I give and bequeath to my sons, George Gilbert, E. W. Gilbert, Charles Gilbert and Edwin C. Gilbert to be divided in equal shares after deducting two thousand (2000) from George Gilbert's share and one thousand (1000) from . . . these being sums already paid for them by me. I give my silver watch to my grandson, Loring S. Farley, and I give my goldheaded cane to Edwin C. Gilbert.
L. S. GILBERT.
The question presented is substantially as follows: Do the children and grandchild take any interest in the property mentioned in the first paragraph of the will by inheritance from Margaret Gilbert, or does the entire estate of which L S. Gilbert died seised or possessed pass by the will directly to the beneficiaries named in the second paragraph, and in the shares and proportions there described? The importance of the inquiry will be recognized when we note that the property devised to the wife constitutes the greater part of the estate, and, if the heirs take through her, they will, as to such property, share equally; but if that devise is held to have lapsed by the death of the wife before the death of the...
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