In re Paine
| Decision Date | 18 May 1900 |
| Citation | 176 Mass. 242,57 N.E. 346 |
| Parties | In re PAINE. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Case reserved from supreme judicial court, Barnstable county; John Lathrop, Judge.
Application of one Paine, executor of the estate of William A. Atkins, deceased, for the construction of a will. Decree rendered.
Adams & Binn, for petitioner.
Carver & Blodgett, for respondents McKennan et al.
Hutchins & Wheeler, for Geo. F. Wade et al.
John W. Converse, for Florine M. Brown.
Raymond A. Hopkins, for Lizzie L. Matheson et al.
William A. Atkins died on April 7, 1897. His will dated November 26, 1892, was duly admitted to probate on June 8, 1897, and the petitioner was appointed executor. The will, after two specific bequests, in the fifth clause directs his executor, after the payment of these bequests, to convert the estate into money, and to invest the money in the stock or securities of the Post Publishing Company, and to hold the same in trust for the objects set forth in the sixth clause of the will. By the sixth clause the executor or his successor in the trust is directed to pay over said stock or securities so purchased ‘to the persons following so soon as he conveniently can, paying to each person a sufficient amount of said stock or securities to give to each of said persons stock or securities in said company of the value in money hereinafter set forth, to wit.’ Then follow the names of five persons, to four of whom $500 apiece is given, and to one $1,000; and then comes the following clause marked ‘f,’ the meaning of which is in controversy: ‘To the children of my deceased brothers and sisters, all the rest of said stock or securities, to be divided among them as provided in the statutes of the commonwealth in such cases made and provided.’ The seventh clause of the will provides that if the testator's nephew, Edwin A. Grozier, or his representatives, should not be stockholders in the Post Publishing Company at the time of the testator's death, or at the time when such investment should be contemplated, then the executor should pay over to the several persons named in the sixth clause of the will the money or balances provided in the fifth clause of the will, paying to each person named in said sixth clause the amount set against his name, ‘and paying to the children of my deceased brothers and sisters any balance of said money in the proportions fixed by clause sixth, paragraph (f) of this will.’ The testator had nine brothers and sisters, all of whom died before the date of his will. At the date of the will, as well as at the time of his death, 15 of the children of his deceased brothers and sisters were living, and 9 were dead, leaving issue then living. Of the 34 persons named as defendants 15 are children of the testator's brothers and sisters, or their representatives, 2 having died since the testator; eleven are grandchildren representing deceased children, and 8 are great-grandchildren representing deceased children of deceased children. Edwin A. Grozier was a stockholder in the Post Publishing Company at the death of the testator, and the executor invested from time to time the estate in the stock of the Post Publishing Company, and has a balance in cash. The executor now asks the court for instructions as to the meaning of paragraph ‘f’ of the sixth clause of the will.
If the bequest in this case had been...
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