In re Conner's Estate

• Decision Date: 05 January 1943
• Docket Number: 272
• Citation: In re Conner's Estate, 29 A.2d 514, 346 Pa. 271 (Pa. 1943)
• Parties: Conner's Estate
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

29 A.2d 514

346 Pa. 271

Conner's Estate

No. 272

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

January 5, 1943

Argued December 3, 1942.

Appeal, No. 272, Jan. T., 1942, from decree of O.C. Phila Co., No. 313 of October, 1911, made on July 29, 1942, in Estate of Annie J. Conner, deceased. Decree affirmed.

Audit of account of trustees. Before LADNER, J.

Adjudication filed denying claim of pecuniary legatees. Exceptions to adjudication dismissed and final decree entered, before STEARNE, SINKLER, KLEIN, BOLGER and LADNER, JJ., opinion by BOLGER, J., dissenting opinion by KLEIN, J. Exceptant appealed.

The decree of the court below is affirmed, costs to be paid by the Trustees of the Estate out of the funds in their hands.

Walter Lee Sheppard, of Foulkrod, Sheppard, Porter & Alexander, and Rawle & Henderson, for appellant.

S Lloyd Moore, with him Charles B. Downs, Milton C. Sharp Benjamin B. Hoar, Edward P. Loughran, Moore, Gossling & Panfil and Isidor Ostroff, for appellees.

Before SCHAFFER, C.J.; MAXEY, DREW, LINN, STERN, PATTERSON and PARKER, JJ.

OPINION

MR. JUSTICE PARKER:

This appeal involves an interpretation of the will of Annie J. Conner for the purpose of determining who is entitled to take the principal of decedent's personal estate after the death of her three children.

Mrs. Conner died April 5, 1910, leaving to survive her three children, Norman, Annie L. and Alice W. Conner. All three children have now died unmarried and without issue and the principal of the personal estate is for distribution. It was claimed by the collateral heirs of the children, representing them as their estates have been fully settled, and by certain charities and strangers to the blood of decedent named in her will.

The pertinent portions of the will are as follows: "First, I give and bequeath all I may die Possessed of, to my three Children, Norman Conner, Annie Lousia Conner and Alice Williams Conner. The Homestead 7056 Germantown ave Mt. Airy, I give to My Son, Norman Conner, With all it contains except what may be Personal Property of my Two Daughters, Annie L. and Alice W. the Balance to be kept as an estate and after all repairs and expenses are paid the income to be equally devided between the three, hoping they will live together and love each other until Marriage or Death parts them . . . and in Case of Death of one, his or her share going to the other two. I appoint my two Daughters, Annie L. and Alice W. My Executors . . . I appoint my Two Daughters, Guardians of thier Brother Norman Conner . . . If any one of my Children should leave legal Issue, I Direct and Devise that such Issue should have the estate equally devided between them after paying to my husbands Dearest friend Arthur Williams or hiers ($5000.00) five thousand Dollars [followed by other cash bequests aggregating $39,000, including $5,000 to appellant] . . . I give my Executors, Power to buy and sell as they see fit, to Improve the Estate for their mutual Benefit."

On behalf of the collateral heirs it was claimed either that Annie J. Conner died intestate as to the principal or that the three children of decedent took a defeasible fee now discharged of conditions. The result would be the same, for the collateral heirs now entitled to take would be the same persons. The appellant, one of the pecuniary legatees mentioned in the will, claims that by the terms of the will it became entitled to participate in the fund on the death of the children.

The majority of the orphans' court held that the three children took a defeasible fee liable to be reduced by the existence of issue of any of the children surviving them, that the condition did not occur, and that the charge of $39,000 on the conditional gift fell with the conditional gift to the issue. We are in accord with this construction.

While this is a layman's will in the handwriting of testatrix, and it is proper to explore the four corners of the will in the light of the circumstances under which it was written to discover her testamentary intent, we must keep in mind that it is not the province of the court "to consider what the testator possibly intended, but only what intention is expressed in the language used": Joyce's Est., 273 Pa. 404, 407, 117 A. 90; Biles v. Biles, 281 Pa. 565, 568, 127 A. 235.

The only reference in the will to the pecuniary legatees including appellant, is the clause which reads: "If any of my Children should leave legal issue, I Direct and Devise that such Issue should have the estate equally divided between them after paying" bequests aggregating $39,000. The bequests were not only conditioned on the children leaving issue, but their payment was charged against the estate devised to the issue. We find nothing in the will from which we can infer an intent to bequeath anything to these claimants under any other circumstance than that the children should leave issue. We are limited to what the testatrix said and may not speculate as to what we think she thought when we...