Estate of Elkeles

California Court of Appeal Mar 13, 1979 No. 54527Published

Before: Fleming

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Holding. The court held that the term "personal property" in the decedent's will was used in its popular sense to refer to personal effects, and did not include intangible choses in action such as bank accounts and savings certificates.

Issues

Whether the phrase "personal property and effects located at my residence" in a will includes intangible choses in action found at the residence.

Disposition. reversed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“decedent used the term "personal property" in its popular sense to include only items and effects of a personal nature, such as her jewelry and furniture, and did not use it in a comprehensive sense to include choses-in-action.”

“we do not believe she intended the distribution of the bulk of her property to be left to the exigency of the location of the paper evidence of her ownership of intangible assets at the time of her death.”

90 Cal.App.3d 374 (1979) 153 Cal. Rptr. 377 Estate of GERTRUDE ELKELES, Deceased.

JILANDRA S. BURNETT, as Successor Administratrix With the Will Annexed, etc., Petitioner and Appellant,

EVELLE J. YOUNGER, as Attorney General, etc., et al., Claimants and Appellants.

Docket No. 54527. Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Two.

March 13, 1979. [375] COUNSEL

Goldman & Petrulis and Kenneth G. Petrulis for Petitioner and Appellant.

Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General, Warren J. Abbott, Assistant Attorney General, James M. Cordi, Deputy Attorney General, Loeb & Loeb, John S. Warren and Andrew S. Garb for Claimants and Appellants.

[376] OPINION

FLEMING, J.

Appeals from a judgment determining distribution of the estate of Gertrude Elkeles, deceased. The issue is whether decedent intended to include certain choses in action (checking account, savings account, savings bond, and 10 savings certificates) in a bequest of "my personal property and effects located at my residence." The papers evidencing decedent's ownership of these choses-in-action were found in her apartment after her death.

Gertrude Elkeles died on 27 January 1977, leaving an estate valued at $46,700.56. The bulk of the estate ($38,479.30) consisted of the choses in action. Other assets included corporate stock and mutual fund shares (total value $7,471.26) found in a bank safe deposit box, and miscellaneous personal effects (total value $750) located in decedent's residence.

By her will dated 13 September 1968, Elkeles, who was never married, provided for distribution of her estate as follows: First, several small cash bequests in amounts of $150 and $350 were made to various relatives, including a $350 bequest to Bette Singerman, a niece. Second, Bette Singerman was to receive "my personal property and effects located at my residence, including my jewelry, and specifically by way of example and not limitation, my ring containing the diamond and topaz stone." Finally, the residue of the estate was left to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (Cedars-Sinai) for the purchase of medical equipment as a memorial to decedent's parents. On 4 April 1972, Elkeles executed a holographic codicil in which she designated $3,000 to Cedars-Sinai for "the medical education of deserving young people."

Estate of Elkeles

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FLEMING, J.

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