Joynes v. Hamilton
| Decision Date | 17 February 1904 |
| Citation | 57 A. 25,98 Md. 665 |
| Parties | JOYNES et al. v. HAMILTON et al. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City; John J. Dobler Judge.
Case stated for the construction of a will between Evelyn H Joynes and another and Columbus J. Hamilton and another executors of the last will and testament of William Hamilton deceased, and others. From a decree in favor of the executors and others, Evelyn H. Joynes and another appeal. Reversed.
Argued before McSHERRY, C.J., and FOWLER, BRISCOE, PAGE, PEARCE, SCHMUCKER, and JONES, JJ.
W. Burns Trundle, for appellants.
Edwin J. Griffin and S. John Lion, for appellees.
This is a special case stated under the forty-seventh general equity rule, for the construction of the last will and testament, and codicil thereto, of William Hamilton, late of Baltimore City, deceased. The facts to enable the court to decide the questions submitted and raised on the record, briefly stated, are these:
Mr. Hamilton departed this life on the 15th day of November, 1902, owning real and personal estate of the aggregate value of $50,000, and leaving a last will and testament dated the 2d day of July, 1890. A codicil was made to the will, and bears date the 16th day of March, 1897. The will and the codicil were duly admitted to probate in the orphans' court of Baltimore City, and the appellees qualified as the executors named therein. By the eighth clause of the will, and the one here in controversy, he provides as follows: "I give to my two grandchildren, the children of my deceased daughter, Mary Julia, wife of Tulley A. Joynes Jr. all that lot in fee fronting about fifty nine feet on Franklin Street near Arlington Avenue and adjoining the lot I gave to my daughter Mary Julia and that my executors shall sell or lease the same and deposit the net proceeds in bank or invest the same for the benefit of my said grandchildren Evelyn and Julia Joynes and also the sum of one thousand dollars the interest to be paid from the time of my death until they or either of them are eighteen years old and in case of the death of either the survivor to have all and in case of the death of both before they are of the age of eighteen the said sum or sums of money is to be equally divided among my children living at the time of said death if such should occur." The testator left surviving him seven children and three grandchildren. The appellants are the children of a deceased daughter, and are the granddaughters named in the eighth clause of the will, and are now above the age of 18 years. At the date of the execution of the will, the lot which the testator owned on Franklin street, and which he devised by the eighth clause of the will to the appellants, was improved by a small chapel, and this was rented to the Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Baltimore at a yearly rental of $80. On the 28th of July, 1896, and six years after the date of the will, the testator, in consideration of $500 paid him, leased this lot to the church for 99 years, subject to a ground rent of $120, and gave the church the right, in the lease, to redeem the rent and purchase the lot at any time for the sum of $2,000. Subsequently, on the 16th day of March, 1897, Mr. Hamilton executed a codicil to his will, which, among other things, provides as follows: "I release my son, Cornelius J. Hamilton in paying to my two granddaughters, Evelyn and Julia Joynes, the children of my deceased daughter Mary Julia, the sum of one thousand dollars and give to them the ground rent of eighty two 50/100 dollars on the lot fronting sixteen feet six inches on the West side of York Road corner of Barrackman's Lane by one hundred and twenty feet deep, they are to have the ground rent created on the lot on Franklin Street adjoining the lot given or deeded to my daughter Mary Julia the rent amounts to one hundred and twenty dollars during their natural life and in case neither of them should leave no children then their portion to go to my children living at their death in equal shares." Afterwards, on the 22d day of October, 1901, the church redeemed the ground rent reserved in the lease for the sum of $2,000, and received a deed from the testator for the Franklin street lot. And it appears from the testator's bankbook with the Fidelity & Deposit Company of Baltimore that the sum of $2,000 was deposited by him in the bank on the same day. And it further appears that after the decease of the testator there were found in a passbook of the Savings Bank of Baltimore, which belonged to him, the following check and letter, in his handwriting:
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