Page:The English Reports v1 1900.pdf/1392
lay before the Master, such settlements as they had made, or proposals for such settlements as they intended to make on their said wives, and the issue of their marriages respectively; and the Master was to enquire whether the same were reasonable and proper or not, and was to state the same, with his opinion thereon to the court, whereupon such further order should be made relating to the transfer and payment of their respective shares, as should be just. And it was ordered, that the remaining fourth part of the said Bank annuities and interest, and of the money to be raised by the sale of the said Exchequer annuities, and of the payments accrued and to accrue thereon as aforesaid, should be divided into thirds, and one third part thereof be transferred and paid to the respondent John Alexander Querqui, Sieur de Chalais; and one other third part thereof, to the respondent James Augustus Querqui, Sieur du Chatelier; and the remaining third be subdivided into moieties, and one moiety transferred and paid to the respondent Jane Margaret Petitpierre, and the remaining moiety to the respondent Ann Elizabeth Petitpierre; and it was further ordered, that £18 15s. which accrued for one quarterly payment on said Exchequer annuities, in the lifetime of Mary Ann Elizabeth Lanove, should be paid to the defendant Barnouin her executor; and that all parties should be paid their costs to be taxed, out of the aforesaid funds.
From this decree the appellant appealed; and on his behalf it was contended (E. Thurlow, A. Wedderburn, J. Madocks), that the residue of the testator's personal estate vested absolutely in Mrs. Thicknesse, on her attaining her age of 21, subject to her mother's right to receive the produce for her life; and though she died in the lifetime of her mother, it was transmitted on her death to her administrator; because a limitation of personal property to a party gives a right to his executors and administrators, whether they are named in the instrument or not. And therefore, if a legacy be given to A. for life, and after his death to B. without saying to his executors or administrators, yet the executors or administrators of B. shall take the legacy, though B. die in the lifetime of A. That this residue vested in Mrs. Thicknesse upon her attaining 21, both by the act of the law, and the intention of the testator. It appeared, that the testator had taken some offence against his son-in-law Mr. Lanove, and therefore directed the produce of the residue to accumulate to the principal, during the joint lives of Mr. Lanove and his wife. If she should survive, he intended that she should be let in to the benefit of the produce for her life, but whether she should survive her husband, or die in his life-time, his grandchildren were the first and main objects to whom the capital should belong, whether their mother's accidental interest in the profits should take place or not; and his collateral relations, to whom he gave it over, were only his secondary objects, in case the first should [371] fail. Accordingly, having given the whole residue to his executors, upon trust to accumulate (except in the case of his daughter surviving her husband, in which case he directed, by way of exception, that she should be let into the produce for her life) he directed, that after her death, the fund itself should be equally divided among her issue, meaning her children; as was evident from his afterwards directing, that the issue of such issue should stand in loco parentis, and also from the devise over, where he used the term child, in describing the reverse of the contingencies under which the issue were to take. Having directed that the fund should be divided among her children, he then appointed the time when such division should be made, viz. when the youngest of them should attain 21 and as the elder children must have attained that age before the younger, he of necessity intended by that direction, that the children who should be entitled to shares, should be such as had attained 21. But as it might happen, that before the youngest should attain 21, some of the eldest might be dead, leaving children; he therefore directed, that if any of the children should be dead when the youngest should attain 21, and had left a lawful issue, the guardian of that lawful issue might receive his share for the benefit of such issue; presuming, that when the youngest should attain 21, if an elder child was then dead, leaving a child, such child would be under age. Here the gift to the grandchildren concluded; and the intention of the testator was evident, that each of them should be entitled, when the youngest should attain 21, to a share of the residue, in case none of them died before that time leaving issue; and in that case, the issue was to stand in the place of the parent. There was no difference between the case of Mrs. Lanove the mother, being then living or dead; save only, that in one event the grandchildren would become entitled to an interest in possession, and in the other to a future interest to come into possession upon her death. An interest actually accrued, to which
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