The hand-book of the law of legacies / containing a statement of the nature of legacies, and the accidents to which they are subjects; together with the rights of legatees, and the causes and manner of the ademption, cumulation, and abatement of their bequests

by Anonymous

THE LEGATEES.

If a testator leave a legacy to an individual “and to the heir of his body,” or to a female, “and to be secured to her and to the heirs of her body,” or to one “and to her issue,” they are absolute legacies, the sole and entire property of the party to whom they are left, and those parties are entitled to receive them. Such is the case also where a legacy is left to a female, “when and if she should attain the age of twenty-one, to her sole and separate use; and in case of her death, having children, her share to go her children,” and to her personally, or to any deputy or attorney, as the law phrases it, properly authorized to receive it, must the legacy be paid. But if a legacy be only generally expressed as to be given to a certain individual, and “to her heirs or children,” the legatee only takes a life interest.

Where legacies are left to each of a certain number of relatives, or to their respective child or children, and should any of them die without a child, the share reverting to the residuary legatee, the relatives so named who survived the testator will each take their share absolutely; for the law cannot contemplate so distant an event as the possibility of the legatees having no children all their lives, and therefore passes the property of the bequest to them in full, and thereby destroys any reversionary right of the residuary legatee.

When a legacy is left to an infant, or person under twenty-one years of age, payable on his attaining that age, and he die before the time, his representative, although he will inherit the property, cannot claim it until the period arrives when the party through whom he claims would have received it. But if the will states that the legacy is to carry interest, the representative can claim it immediately on the death of his principal. Should a legacy be made payable out of land, at some future time, although it should carry interest in the meantime, it was decided in Gowler v. Standerwick, that if the legatee should die before the time arrives, the fund should not be raised until that time, securing, nevertheless, a personal fund for a future or contingent legatee. When, however, it was stated by the will that certain legacies should be paid on the land, but expressed neither time nor manner in which the money should be raised, nor did it appear that the estate was a reversion, which was in fact the case, it was held that the estate should be disposed of in order to raise the legacies, and that they should be paid with interest from the time of the testator’s death, and not from the period when the estate would accrue.

Should the will express that a legatee is to take on attaining the age of twenty-one, and in the event of his dying before twenty-one, then that it is to go to another, that other person will take the legacy immediately on the death of the first-named legatee, if he should die before twenty-one, because he does not claim through the first party, but, in consequence of a direct right which became his on the death of that party. But in the case of Moore v. Godfrey, where legacies were given to three co-heiresses, to be paid to them on their respective marriages, and in case of the death of any of them before marriage, her or their share to go to the survivor or survivors, and one of the sisters did die unmarried, it was held, that the portion of the deceased did not accrue to her sisters, any more than their original shares, until the period of their marriage, according to the terms of the original devise.

Where stock is left to trustees to pay the dividends from time to time to a married woman for her separate use, the bequest is an unlimited one, and passes the capital as well as its interest, and she may appoint or direct its disposal at her death. And where a certain sum had been left to trustees, in trust, to pay the dividends to a party, until an exchange of certain lands should be made between him and another party, the capital then to be equally divided between them, and the latter died before the time for making the exchange expired, the former party obtained the whole of the legacy.

If a legatee is to receive an estate, including residuary legateeship, on condition of paying the debts of the deceased, and he take the estate, he is liable for the whole of the debts, though they may exceed the value of the estate tenfold.

Conditions may be annexed to legacies, which in some cases become substantive parts of title, but are in others void and useless. Thus, when a legacy was bequeathed, on condition that the legatee “should change the course of life he had too long followed, and give up low company, frequenting public houses, &c.,” it was held that it was a condition that ought to be complied with, and the court directed an inquiry to ascertain whether it had been before it would direct the payment of the legacy. But when, on the contrary, a legacy was left to a married woman, on condition that she lived apart from her husband, the legacy was awarded notwithstanding the breach of the conditions, because it was deemed contrary to good morals and Christian duty. When a condition was annexed that the legatee should take, provided he did not marry without the consent of the executor, expressed in writing, and he did marry with the consent of such executor, but expressed verbally and not in writing, it was held that he was entitled to the legacy; and the consent of a co-executor, who had not acted, was not considered requisite.

A legacy was given on condition that the legatee intimated to the executor his willingness to forgive certain debts, and he filed a bill in Chancery to recover his claims, it was decided that he had forfeited the legacy. In a case where a testator authorized his executors, at any time before a certain person attained the age of twenty-six, to raise £600 by sale of stock, and apply the same towards his advancement in life, or for any purposes for his benefit, as the executors might think proper, and at the age of twenty-six he made an absolute gift of the £600 to that person, the executors declined to act, and the court refused to give any portion of it, until it could ascertain whether the legatee’s position was such that he would suffer detriment unless the whole, or a portion, were paid.