Lewis v. Shattuck
| Decision Date | 20 May 1899 |
| Citation | 173 Mass. 486,53 N.E. 912 |
| Parties | LEWIS et al. v. SHATTUCK et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court |
Geo.
S. Boutwell, for appellants.
B.B Johnson, for appellees.
This is an appeal from a decree of a single justice upon appeal from the probate court construing the will of Sumner Shattuck, and also an appeal from another decree of the same justice upon the second account of Sumner Shattuck's executor requiring him to charge himself in accordance with the construction given to the will.
The executor charged himself with $1,800 received from the sale of real estate, and asked to be allowed for a payment of $1,000 out of that sum to the widow. The decrees of the single justice disallowed the payment and declared that the widow was entitled to an estate for life only, subject to be terminated by a second marriage, and that the executor was to pay her the income only of the fund.
The material parts of the will are as follows: The executor is given a power of sale.
It may be that the words in which the testator made a gift to his wife, "for her own use and benefit during her natural life," conveyed to his mind the notion of an absolute power of disposition on her part. The provision that she was not to make a gift out of said property to any of her heirs or blood relations suggests that notion, as does also the limitation of "all that remains" after her death by way of remainder. But this is conjecture. On the other hand the words of limitation, taken by themselves, create a life estate, and nothing else. They are perfectly clear, and free from doubt. We cannot enlarge or change their meaning to one which they are not apt to convey according to common speech or technical use, on the strength of...
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Conant v. St. John
...bar without the intervention of a decree of the court converted the real estate into money and impressed it with a trust. Lewis v. Shattuck, 173 Mass. 486, 53 N. E. 912. They appear to have commingled the proceeds of the real and personal estate in a single fund. But even if it came from th......
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Newton Trust Co. v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue
...to his wife for her "use and benefit" during life or until remarriage created only a life estate in the widow. Lewis v. Shattuck, 1899, 173 Mass. 486, 53 N.E. 912; Fuller v. Wilbur, 1898, 170 Mass. 506, 49 N.E. 916. As we said previously we agree with the taxpayer when it says that "use and......
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Woodbridge v. Jones
... ... cases cited; Collins v. Wickwire, 162 Mass. 143, 38 ... N.E. 365; Sawin v. Cormier, 179 Mass. 420, 60 N.E ... 936; Roberts v. Lewis, 153 U.S. 367, 14 S.Ct. 945, ... 38 L.Ed. 747; Lewis v. Shattuck, 173 Mass. 486, 53 ... N.E. 912; Burbank v. Sweeney, 161 Mass. 490, 37 N.E ... ...
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Youngs' Guardian v. Shaver's Ex'x
...that the remainder vested in fee in the grandson under a devise to him after her death 'for his use and benefit.' And see Lewis v. Shattuck, 173 Mass. 486 . In McCullough's Appeal, 4 Yeates [Pa.] 23, it held that a devise to a wife of 'the benefits of all my real estate' was a devise of the......