Hopkins v. Safe Deposit & Trust Co.

Grason, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Archibald H. Taylor died August 17, 1928, leaving a last will and testament which was duly admitted to probate in the Orphans’ Court of Baltimore City. ⁵⁴⁶ In Item II he directed to be paid and charged to the principal of his estate all lawful inheritance or estate taxes, as the same should fall due, upon the annuities and life estates which were provided for in subsequent provisions of the will. By Item III he gave all the rest and residue of his estate at the time of his death (excepting proceeds of life insurance policies on his life) to trustees, to manage and control the same, and to pay out of the income thereof the annual installments of the annuities provided for in the will, the taxes, and pending the lives or after the death of the several annuitants and life tenants, to pay the “legacies and devisees,” and make final distribution of the estate in their hands as provided for in the will. By Item VIII he directed the trustees to pay out of the net income of said estate the whole balance of said net income of the same to his widow for and during her life, with authority to pay his widow an additional sum of $5,000.00 per annum out of the corpus of the estate in the hands of the trustees in such amounts and at such time as she may request in writing.

Item IX of the will is as follows: “After the death of my said wife, said trustees shall pay out of the net income of said trust estate to and for the benefit of Anne Seymour Hopkins, daughter of my friend, the late William A. Jones, the sum of Five Hundred Dollars ($500) annually for her life, said payment to be continued after her death to her son, Archibald Taylor Hopkins, until he shall have arrived at the age of thirty years, when the full sum of Six Thousand Dollars ($6,000.00) shall be paid to him from the accumulated income and principal of the estate in the hands of said trustee, in commutation of said annuity of Five Hundred Dollars ($500).” Item XVIII provides: “And if there is found any property whatsoever belonging to the estate of the said testator at the time of his death which is not totally and finally disposed of by the foregoing clauses or items of this my Will and Testament, the same is hereby given to ⁵⁴⁷ my niece Genevieve Welling Taylor, hereinbefore mentioned, to be hers absolutely and in fee simple.” We are concerned with these items. Mary Martha Taylor, widow of testator, died on June 2, 1943. Anne Seymour Hopkins and her son, Archibald Taylor Hopkins, died as a result of an automobile accident, in June, 1940 (the son being seventeen years old at the time), the mother dying two days before the son. Samuel R. Hopkins, administrator of the estate of Archibald Taylor Hopkins, deceased, claims that there is due him as administrator by the substituted trustee under Item IX of the will, $6,000 in commutation of the $500 annuity to be paid as in said item directed.

The proceedings in this case were instituted for the purpose of the construction of the will by the court and for direction to the substituted trustee in the final distribution of the estate. The Chancellor below, among other things, held that the $6,000 to be paid in commutation of the $500 annuity lapsed, and decreed that the same should be paid by the trustee to Genevieve Welling Taylor under Item XVIII of the will. From these provisions of the decree Samuel R. Hopkins, administrator as aforesaid, appeals to this court. The testator’s widow survived Mrs. Hopkins and her son for three years.

By the plain language of Item IX the annuity was not directed by the testator to be paid to Mrs. Hopkins or her son until the death of his widow. No claim is made by the appellant for the payment of annuities that have accrued since the death of Mrs. Taylor and neither is it contended that the annuity should be paid yearly until the time when the son would have attained the age of thirty years, if living. The