Granberry's Estate, In re

• Decision Date: 31 March 1975
• Docket Number: No. 47940,47940
• Parties: In the Matter of the ESTATE of Dennis P. GRANBERRY, Deceased. Betty Granberry BURGESS et al. v. William S. GRANBERRY et al.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 708

310 So.2d 708

In the Matter of the ESTATE of Dennis P. GRANBERRY, Deceased.

Betty Granberry BURGESS et al. v. William S. GRANBERRY et al.

No. 47940.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 31, 1975.

Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada, Jay A. Travis, III, D. Carl Black, Jr., Jackson, Deavours, Weems & Cilchrist, Laurel, for appellants.

Pack, Patcliff & Thaxton, laurel, for appellees.

Before GILLESPIE, INZER and BROOM, JJ.

INZER, Justice.

This is an appeal by Betty Granberry Burgess and her daughter Susan Burgess Boyle from a decree of the Chancery Court of the Second Judicial District of Jones County construing the last will and testament of Dennis P. Granberry, deceased. We affirm.

The will involved was executed on April 3, 1967, and the testator died on September 8, 1972. After the will was duly probated the executors filed a petition seeking a construction of certain provisions of the will. Several questions were posed for construction and were answered by the court, but the only question involved on this appeal is whether the Chancellor was in error in holding that the dominant intent of the testator was to devise to his son, William S. Granberry, all of his stock in the Richton Bank & Trust Company. The pertinent provisions of the will are as follows:

Second. I hereby give, devise and bequeath to my good friends, O. B. Bowen, Jr., and his brother, William F. Bowen, both of Richton, Mississippi, in cash, the sum of $1,000.00 each, from the proceeds of my estate, as an expression of my sincere and heart-felt appreciation to them for their complete loyalty and joint efforts with me in the affairs of the Richton Bank & Trust Company of Richton Mississippi, both of whom fully understand and appreciate my ownership of Fifty-Two per cent (52%) of the capital stock of the said bank, which under the next following provision of this my Will is thereby transferred, in absolute and perfect ownership to my son, William S. Granberry, henceforth; and I do now urge that my said son and my aforesaid good friends, O. B. Bowen, Jr., and his brother, William F. Bowen, Jr., and his in the future to work together for the best interest of the said bank, which their father and I established with complete understanding.

Third. After fully satisfying the foregoing provisions of this my Will, I hereby give, devise and bequeath all of the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, real, personal and mixed, of every kind and character, wheresoever situated or being, which I may own, or in which I may be interested at the time of my death, as follows, to-wit:

1. I hereby give, devise and bequeath to my son, William E. Granberry, Forty percent (40%) thereof. As a portion of the said Forty percent (40%), I hereby give, devise and bequeath to my said son, William S. Granberry, all of my stock in the Richton Bank & Trust Company, of Richton, Mississippi, in absolute and perfect ownership, to be owned by him outright, for the good of himself and his family, with the remaining portion of his Forty percent (40%) to come from the residue of my estate.

2. I hereby give, devise and bequeath to my beloved wife, Susie F. Granberry, Twenty percent (20%) thereof. In explanation for the differential in the provisions of this my Will for my wife and children, in so far as the quantity of my estate coming to each of them is concerned, I have taken into consideration the fact that my beloved wife now has in her own name and account sufficient worth, financially to provide for herself for the remainder of her natural life, and have so acted knowing full well that our two living children will see to it that she is well provided for personally and physically. Furthermore, I have afforded a substantial portion of her personal finances. I hereby further direct that in case of the inability of my beloved wife to properly handle her own affairs, by reason of sickness or disability, or for any other reason, then and in such event I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint the aforesaid Richton Bank & Trust Company to serve as the Legal Guardian of her person and estate, under the supervision of my three (3) executors hereinafter named, and their successors in office.

3. I hereby give, devise and bequeath the remaining forty percent (40%) thereof to the Richton Bank & Trust Company of Richton, Mississippi, as trustee and in trust under the provisions of this my Will, for the use and benefit of my daughter, Betty Granberry Burgess, and for the use and benefit of my granddaughter, Susan Pierce Burgess, and said bank serving as trustee under the direction and supervision of my three (3) executors hereinafter named, and/or their successors in office.

At the hearing the following stipulation was agreed to by the parties:

It is stipulated that for the purpose of this hearing that the value of the stock in the Richton Bank and Trust Company owned by the testator exceeded forty percent of the assets of the estate passing under the will, and that for the purpose of this hearing we are not going into the matter of value beyond that; that if the construction of the will by the Court requires proof of value or finding of values that the record will be kept open for production of evidence and further findings by the court as to values.

The chancellor rendered a well-reasoned written opinion which may be best summed up in the Chancellor's own words as follows:

Therefore, it is the Court's opinion that under the last will and testament of Dennis Granberry, that it is apparent from a reading of the entire will that the testator's intent was that William S. Granberry receive all of the stock, or all of his stock of the Richton Bank & Trust Company, and in addition thereto, was to receive a portion of the residue of the estate after the devise of the stock in the event the stock did not constitute as much as forty percent of the value of the estate.

Appellants contend that the Chancellor was in error and that the dominant intent of the testator was to treat his children equally. Appellant admit that it was the intent of the testator that William S. Granberry receive all the stock owned by the testator in the Richton Bank & Trust Company, but contend that he was to receive it only in the event that the value of the stock was less than forty percent of the estate. Appellants rely on the rule that when the language of the will is ambiguous and the intent of the testator is obscure, a construction of the will which will effect a just and natural disposition in accordance with the laws of descent and distribution will control unless there is a manifest intention to the contrary. Consequently, appellants argue that since the will must operate on the estate as it exists at the death of the testator and at that time the value of the stock exceeded forty percent of the estate, the will should be construed so as to limit the amount of stock that William S. Granberry received to forty percent of the net value of the estate.

We have said in numerous cases that the fundamental rule governing the construction of all wills is to ascertain the intent of the testator. This intent must be gathered from the entire will or as is sometimes said 'from the four corners of the instrument,' giving due consideration and weight to every word in the will. The language used in a single clause or sentence does not control against the purpose and intention as shown by the whole will. The will must be construed in the light of the circumstances surrounding the testator at the time the will was written.

When the intent of the testator has been in this way ascertained, all minor, subordinate and technical rules of construction must yield to the paramount intent thus ascertained. Carlisle v. Carlisle, 233 So.2d 803 (Miss.1970); Kyle v. Wood, 227 Miss. 717, 86 So.2d 881 (1956); and Ball v. Phelan, 94 Miss. 293, 49 So. 956, (1908).

Construing this will in the light of this rule, we are of the opinion that the Chancellor correctly construed it. We know from this will that the testator was a successful businessman. The evidence reflects that his son William S. Granberry was at the time of the execution of the will a director in the Richton Bank & Trust Company and shortly thereafter became an officer in the bank. We also learn from the will that the testator was interested in seeing the control of the bank be placed in the hands of his son after his death. It is not unusual or unnatural for a man who has established a successful business and controlled it for many years to desire to pass that control into the hands of his only son after his death. The intent of the testator in this regard is clearly reflected in the second paragraph of his will wherein he bequeathed to O. B. Bowen, Jr. an William F. Bowen the sum of $1,000 each, in appreciation of their loyalty and cooperation in the affairs of the bank. Then he says, 'both of whom fully understand and appreciate my ownership of fifty-two percent of the capital stock of said bank, which under the next following provision of this my will, is thereby transferred in absolute and perfect ownership to my son, William S. Granberry, henceforth.' (Emphasis added). Then the testator makes it crystal clear that he intends for his son to have the control of the bank by urging his son and the Bowen brothers to work together for the best interest of said bank. We gather from this paragraph that the thing foremost in the mind of the testator when he executed this will was to pass the ownership and control of the majority interest of the bank into the hands of his son.

It is also significant that the testator says in this paragraph that in the next following provision of his will the ownership of 52 percent of the capital stock of the bank is 'thereby transferred, in absolute and perfect ownership to my son, William S. Granberry, henceforth;'. This statement negates any idea that he intended to limit the devise of the stock to forty percent of his...