Estate of Edwards

203 Cal.App.3d 1366 (1988) 250 Cal. Rptr. 779 Estate of ANNA EDWARDS, Deceased.

SECURITY PACIFIC NATIONAL BANK, Plaintiff and Respondent,

v.

DAVID E. AGNEW et al., Defendants and Appellants. PATRICIA R. FOUBERT et al., Defendants and Respondents.

Docket No. B028713. Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Six.

August 23, 1988. [1369] COUNSEL

Hufstedler, Miller, Carlson & Beardsley, James R. McDaniel, Adrienne Larkin Cook, Berryhill, Edwards & Miller and Colleen Parent Beall, for Defendants and Appellants.

Wilson, Borror, Dunn & Scott, James R. Dunn and Robert L. Bletcher for Defendants and Respondents.

No appearance for Plaintiff and Respondent.

OPINION

STONE (S.J.), P.J.

The subject of this appeal is the interpretation of a provision in a will disposing of the principal of a residuary trust. We conclude that the trial court's interpretation of this provision is erroneous, and reverse.

Background

Anna Edwards (Anna) died in 1931; she left no spouse or children, and had three brothers.

In a will executed in 1930, she created a residuary trust which reads as follows in pertinent part: "EIGHTH: All the rest, residue, and remainder of [1370] my property, real, personal, and mixed, and wheresoever the same may be situate [sic] or being, I give, devise and bequeath to Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles, a corporation, in trust nevertheless for the following uses and purposes: To collect, hold, manage, sell, lease, control and possess, invest and re-invest the same, and pay the net income therefrom to the following persons and in proportions as follows: ... [¶] One-seventh thereof to my niece, Abby Edwards Randall; [¶] One-seventh thereof to my niece, Dorothy Edwards; [¶] One-seventh thereof to my niece, Margaret E. Agnew; [¶] One-seventh thereof to my niece, Miriam B. Edwards; [¶] One-seventh thereof to my grand-niece, Patricia A. Ryon; [¶] One-seventh thereof to my grand-niece, Anna Berningham Edwards; [¶] One-seventh thereof to my grand-nieces, children of my nephew, Alfred R. Edwards, surviving at the time of my death. [¶] Should either of my said nieces or grand-nieces die leaving lawful issue her surviving, then the share of the income of the one so dying shall go to such issue; however, should either of my said nieces or grand-nieces die leaving no lawful issue her surviving, then the share of the income of the one so dying shall go to the survivor or survivors of my said nieces and grand-nieces. Upon the death of the last of my four nieces in this Paragraph 8 above-named, this trust shall cease and terminate, provided my said grand-nieces shall have attained the age of fifty years (or shall have died) and the property so held in my trust by my said trustee shall go to and vest per stirpes in my said grand-nieces and in the lawful issue of my said four nieces and in the lawful issue of any of my grand-nieces who may have died prior to the termination of this trust; and should all my said nieces and grand-nieces die without lawful issue her or them surviving, then the property so held in trust shall go to and vest in my said nephews, Archie M. Edwards and John S. Edwards, ..." (Italics added.)