Gerting v. Wells

McSherry, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. By the record now before us the last will and testament of Charles Gerting late of Harford County is brought into this Court for interpretation. It bears date on the 16th day of August, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-two. The clause which gives rise to the pending controversy is in the following words : “I give, devise and bequeath to my brother, William Gerting, all my estate real, personal and mixed, of which I die seized, in trust for my daughter and only child, Minnie Gerting, until she arrives at the age of twenty-five [25) years, when the said trust shall cease, and the said property shall vest absolutely in possession in said Minnie Gerting. “In the event of the death of the said Minnie Gerting without legal heirs or heir, I give and bequeath to my brother, Frederick Gerting, the sum of two thousand ($2,000) dollars, current money, all the rest and residue and remainder of my estate, real, personal and mixed, of every kind and wheresoever the same may be situated, I give, devise and bequeath to my brother, William Gerting, of the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, his heirs, personal representatives and assigns.” Under proceedings had in 1899, the Circuit Court for Harford County, sitting as a Court of equity, assumed jurisdiction over the trust created by the will and required the testamentary trustee to give bond for the faithful discharge of his duties.

Minnie Gerting, the cestui que trust, had in the meantime, ⁹⁵ married and later on, after she had attained the age of twenty-five years, the trustee filed in the equity cause a petition, asking the Court “to construe said will and all its provisions and determine whether the estate of said Charles Gerting, deceased,” then in the hands of the trustee should be paid and turned over to the cestui que trust, or whether the trust should continue to await the event of the death of the testator’s daughter and the contingency of her leaving issue. The petition was answered and upon that state of the pleadings the question was submitted to the Court. On December 31st, 1903, a decree was signed adjudging that the trust had ceased and terminated and directing the trustee to pay and turn over to the decedent’s daughter all the trust estate and property. From that decree this appeal was taken on February 26th, 1904, but the record, though a brief one, was not filed in this Court until September the fifteenth, owing, as the clerk certifies, to the press of business in his office.

We have no doubt whatever that the decree is right. The contention of the appellant is that Minnie Gerting, now Minnie Wells, took under her father’s will only a life estate if she should die without leaving children, because the language used in the paragraph next succeeding the one containing the gift to the daughter indicates an intention on the part of the testator to give all of his property to his two brothers in the event of the daughter dying without leaving a child or children. We do not so read the will. The intention of a testator as gathered from the four corners of his will must be gratified if not in conflict with some unbending principle of law or rule of property.

In applying this cardinal canon of construction every effort must be made to give effect to all provisions of the instrument, so that conflicts between its several parts shall be avoided and so that the entire paper may be dealt with as an harmonious and consistent document. No valid reason can be suggested for holding that the second clause was designed to limit and cut down to a mere life estate the absolute gift made by the prior paragraph to a trustee for the use of the only person who would have taken the entire estate with ⁹⁶ out limitations of any kind if her father had died intestate. The gift in the first instance is unequivocal. “I give, devise and bequeath to my brother * * * all my estate * * * in trust for my daughter and only child * * * until she arrives at the age of twenty-five years, when the said trust shall cease, and the said property shall vest absolutely in possession in said Minnie Gerting." As Minnie Gerting, now Wells, reached the age