Wattson McLean v. Wattson

KNIGHT, J.

This appeal involves the question of whether the construction placed by the probate court on the trust clause of a will is reasonable.

The testatrix, Mary I. Wattson, died September 22, 1940, leaving an estate consisting of corporate stock, uncollected dividends, bank deposits, and one piece of residential property, all of the approximate value of $19,420. Her surviving heirs were two nephews, Leonard and George Wattson, aged

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respectively thirty-four and twenty-six years at the time of her death. By her will, dated January 17, 1936, she provided first for the payment of several cash legacies. She then, in separate clauses identical in form, bequeathed one-half of the residue of her estate to the mother of Leonard Wattson in trust for him until he reached the age of thirty-five years, and the other half to the mother of George Wattson until he attained the age of thirty-five. The will was admitted to probate on October 9, 1940, and in less than a year thereafter George Wattson died. At the time of his death he was less than twenty-eight years old, and married; but he left no issue; and within a few months after his death his widow again married. She became Mrs. McLean, and on September 3, 1943, she filed a petition for the purpose of having the probate court determine who was entitled to receive the corpus of the George Wattson trust. The court held that the law of succession governed and that therefore Leonard Wattson was entitled to receive one-half of the trust fund and Mrs. McLean the other half. Mrs. McLean has appealed, it being her main contention that under the trust clause, properly construed, she is entitled to receive the entire trust fund.

The clause in question reads as follows: “Sixth: I hereby give, devise and bequeath one-half of the residue of my estate to my sister-in-law, Margaret Wattson, in trust, nevertheless, for the following uses and purposes:

“To pay the net income therefrom to her son, George Watt-son, until he shall attain the age of thirty-five years, when the entire corpus and all undistributed income shall go to and vest in him. Should he die before attaining the age of thirty-five years leaving issue, the trust shall continue until he would have attained that age had he lived and then terminate, the net income during that period to be paid to his issue share and share alike. Upon said termination the corpus shall go to, and vest in, said issue then living share and share alike, and in default of issue the trust shall immediately terminate upon the death of the last issue and the corpus and all undistributed income shall thereupon go to, and vest in, those [who] would be his heirs according to the statute of succession then in force in the State of California, assuming that he died coincident with the termination of the trust.”