Reilly v. Union Protestant Infirmary

McSherry, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. By the second clause of her last will and testament Mary Long bequeathed to the “ Presbyterian Infirmary on Division street in Baltimore City” the sum of five hundred dollars ; and by the fourth, or residuary clause, she gave the rest and residue of her estate to “ The Central Presbyterian Church (Eutaw street), and the Home Mission of the Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, to be divided equally between them, share and share alike.” The next of kin of the testatrix claim that the gifts to the Presbyterian Infirmary on Division street and to the Home Mission of the Presbyterian Church are void because there are no such corporations existing as those named in the will. The Union Protestant Infirmary, a body corporate owning and conducting an infirmary on Division street in Baltimore, claims the legacy to the Presbyterian Infirmary on Division street; and “ The Trustees of the Presbytery of Baltimore,” a body cor ⁶⁶⁶ porate, claims that it is entitled to receive the' share of the residuum given to the Home Mission of the Presbyterian Church of Baltimore. The executor being confronted by these conflicting claims filed a bill in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City against all the parties asserting an interest in the funds, and asked that the Court take jurisdiction of the administration of the estate and construe the will.

The several defendants answered the bill. The appellants, the collateral next of kin of the decedent, who left no lineal descendants, relying on the alleged invalidity of the second and fourth clauses of the will, claimed the property therein disposed of; and the appellees, asserting their ability to take the bequests, insisted that the property passed to them under the will. Testimony was taken and upon final hearing a decree was entered sustaining the contention of the appellees. From that decree the next of kin have appealed.

In disposing of the questions involved we do not propose to cite or to rely on parallel or seemingly parallel cases ; because, as has often been said by this and other Courts, when the decision is not upon some rule or principle of law, but upon the meaning of descriptive terms in instruments which differ so widely from each other as wills almost invariably do; and when the proper construction of these terms is so varied by the peculiar circumstances of each ■case, it seldom happens, or can happen, that the words of one will are a sure or a safe guide for the construction of words resembling them in another will. The intention of the testator as gathered from the will itself, when the will is read in the light of the circumstances and environment that surrounded its author at the time of its execution, is, in the last analysis and in every instance, the objective point of judicial inquiry. The law will not deny to the reader of an instrument the same light that the writer had. If the testamentary intention is thus made to appear with reasonable certainty, it will prevail, provided, of course, the language employed and actually written, is, when interpreted from the standpoint which the testator occupied at the time ⁶⁶⁷ of using it, sufficiently intelligible and apt; and provided no principle of law or settled rule of property be invaded by giving effect to the intent when so ascertained.

The testatrix was at the time of her death, and for many years previously had been a contributing and an active member of the Central Presbyterian Church of Baltimore., She was evidently intensely interested in the various auxiliary religious and benevolent bodies affiliated with, or which she thought were affiliated with, her faith. Of. the seven bequests contained in her will five are for religious or benevolent purposes. The first of these five is to the Presbyterian Infirmary on Division street in Baltimore. There is an Infirmary on Division street and the record shows there is but one.

That the testatrix intended to give to an Infirmary on Division street a legacy of five hundred dollars is as clear from the terms of the will as language can convey. As there is but one Infirmary on that street it is equally clear she intended that one to be the beneficiary. But the next of kin assert, and it is conceded, that the corporate name of the institution on Division street is not the Presbyterian Infirmary, but the Union Protestant Infirmary ; and the question is can the latter take the bequest under the designation contained in the will ? This is simply a question as to the identity of the legatee.

At the outset it is obvious that the testatrix did not intend the appellants to have her estate, and if they succeed in getting it it will be in spite of her effort to give it to others. Her manifest intention was, not to give that estate to her next of kin. We start, then, with the postulate that the testatrix did not intend the appellants to have the funds they now claim, and that she did intend that others should receive them. If the testatrix intended that the body corporate claiming the bequest—the Union Protestant Infirmary—was the one to receive it; and if that intention sufficiently appears by the will when we place ourselves as nearly as may be in the situation which she occupied; then, no matter how inaccurately she may have named the object of her bounty, the real legatee will take. ⁶⁶⁸ “ A misnomer in a grant by statute or by devise, to a corporation, does not avoid the grant, though the right name of the corporation be not used, provided the corporation really intended