Maryland Grange Agency v. Lee

Fowler, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Mrs. Caroline E. Lee, of Anne Arundel County, died in 1884, possessed of a valuable farm situated in that county, leaving a will duly executed to pass real estate, by which she devised all her property, real and personal, after the payment of her funeral expenses, debts and costs of administration, to be equally divided among her five children, of whom the appellee is one, on the following terms, conditions, and trusts: — “To her said sons, in trust for the support, maintenance, education and advancement in life of their several and respective families, so that they, the said sons, shall hold and possess said property, and the rents and profits thereof, and apply the same as they may deem best during the several lives of said sons, to and for such uses and purposes. ” The will also provides that no part of the property devised shall in any event be made liable for the debts or contracts of the children of the testatrix so as to be „sold for the same, or in any manner diverted from the object and purpose of said trust. . At the October Term, 1888, of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, the appellant recovered a judgment against the appellee, and caused a writ of fieri facias to be issued and directed to the sheriff of said county, who levied upon the crops of corn and tobacco growing on that portion of the real estate of the testatrix, which, in the partition thereof as provided by her will, was at the time of said levy in ¹⁶³ possession of and cultivated by the appellee. Whereupon the appellee moved to quash said levy, and asked that said crops be discharged from the same.

After hearing evidence and argument by counsel this motion was sustained by the Court below, and from its action this appeal was taken. The sole question presented for consideration is as to the construction of the will of Mrs. Lee, so far as it relates to the appellee's title to the crops