Segal v. Himelfarb

RAYMOND G. THIEME, Jr., Judge, Retired, Specially Assigned. Bruce Z. Segal, in his capacity as the personal representative of the estate of his aunt, Mrs. Helen Segal, appeals the Order of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, sitting as the Orphans’ Court, pertaining to the distribution of assets from Mrs. Segal’s estate. Appellant presents the following question in this appeal, which we have re-phrased for clarity: Did the trial court err in its interpretation of Maryland’s Anti-lapse Statute by ruling that Helen Segal’s bequest to Louis Segal passed back to her estate for distribution to her heirs rather than to Louis Segal’s contingent beneficiaries in his will? Perceiving no reversible error, we affirm.

Facts This case arose from a one-page Last Will and Testament, executed on September 28, 1978, in which Mrs. Helen Segal devised her entire estate to her husband, Mr. Louis Segal, but named no contingent beneficiaries in the event her husband predeceased her. In turn, Mr. Segal’s Last Will and Testament, executed on April 14, 1994, bequeathed his entire estate to Mrs. Segal, if she survived him, and provided for contingent beneficiaries in the event his wife predeceased him. 1 Mr. Segal died on February 2, 1995, almost three years prior to Mrs. Segal’s death on January 5, 1998. At the time of Mrs. Segal’s death, she was survived by appellees—her surviving three brothers Jordan, Stanford, and Hillard Himelfarb. Following Mrs. Segal’s death, her will was admitted to probate in Montgomery County.

Appellees contended that, pursuant to Maryland’s Anti-lapse Statute, the assets of Mrs. Segal’s estate passed to her husband, and then returned to ⁵⁴² Mrs. Segal for distribution to appellees, as her heirs at law. Appellant, however, contended that Maryland’s Anti-lapse Statute provided for the estate to be passed to Mr. Segal and then, in turn, to be distributed to appellant and Mr. Segal’s other nieces and nephews as Mr. Segal’s contingent beneficiaries under his will. As a result of this disagreement, the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, sitting as the Orphans’ Court, conducted a meeting of all interested persons entitled to distribution. The court held that the assets of Mrs. Segal’s estate passed to appellees.

Appellant, in his capacity as personal representative of Mrs. Segal’s estate, appeals from that decision. Discussion Helen Segal’s will unequivocally provided for her husband, Louis Segal, to be her sole beneficiary. At the time of Helen Segal’s death, however, Mr. Segal had been deceased for nearly three years. “At common law, if a devisee or legatee predeceased the testator, absent a clause in the wall providing for an alternate disposition of the gift, the devise lapsed.” Gallaudet Univ. v. Nat’l Soc’y of the Daughters of the Am. Revolution, 117 Md.App. 171, 187 , 699 A.2d 531 (1997).

Maryland’s first anti-lapse statute, contained in the Acts of 1810, ch. 14, § 4, reversed the common law, and provided that a bequest to a legatee who predeceased the testator would not lapse or fail. Rather, such devises would transfer to the heirs of the deceased legatee as if the legatee had died intestate. 2 Since then, the statute has undergone ⁵⁴³ several amendments.... 3 Id. Most recently, the statute was amended as a result of the 1968 report of the Governor’s Commission to Revise the Testamentary Law of Maryland, commonly known as the Henderson Commission. In its current form, the Anti-lapse Statute provides: (a) Death of legatee prior to testator.—Unless a contrary intent is expressly indicated in the will, a legacy may not lapse or fail because of the death of a legatee after the execution of the will but prior to the death of the testator if the legatee is: (1) Actually and specifically named as legatee; (2) Described or in any manner referred to, designated, or identified as legatee in the will; or (3) A member of a class in whose favor a legacy is made.

(b) Effect of death of legatee.—A legacy described in subsection (a) shall have the same effect and operation in law to direct the distribution of the property directly from the estate of the person who owned the property to those persons who would have taken the property if the legatee had died, testate or intestate, owning the property. (c) Creditors of deceased legatee.—Creditors of the deceased legatee shall have no interest in the property, whether the claim is based on contract, tort, tax obligations, or any other item. Md.Code (1974, 1991 Repl.Vol.), § 4-403 of the Estates & Trusts Article. 4 ⁵⁴⁴ Therefore, the anti-lapse statute applies in this case, and, although Mr. Segal predeceased his wife, the bequest from her passes to him, as if he had died owning the property. Accordingly, we look to Mr. Segal’s will, which names his wife as his beneficiary if she survives him.

His will further states that his property is to pass to specifically named nieces and nephews in the event that his wife does not survive him. Appellant contends that the bequest from Mrs. Segal passes to Mr. Segal’s contingent beneficiaries. Appellant argues that it is irrelevant whether Mrs. Segal survived Mr. Segal; rather, appellant reasons, in order for the estate to revert back to Helen Segal, she must have been alive at the time her estate actually came into Louis Segal’s estate. Appellees, on the other hand, assert that the property reverts to Mrs. Segal’s estate because Mrs. Segal did in fact survive her husband, and was therefore the beneficiary to his estate.

The primary issues for us to decide are: 1) did the Orphans’ Court apply the anti-lapse statute more than once in this case, and 2) when should the anti-lapse statute be applied—at the time of the legatee’s death or at the time the asset actually comes into the legatee’s estate? The Orphans’ Court, in providing its ruling on this case, stated: ⁵⁴⁵ The Court believes that in this case it is the heirs of Mrs. Segal, her siblings, who should take. The Court’s rationale is this: I think all parties agree that under the anti-lapse statute, in essence, this asset bounces to the husband’s estate. There isn’t any dispute there, and it is very clear that is the case.

The question is what occurs once that has happened: Does it stop there and flow down to those who would take under his will as continued beneficiaries or does it bounce back to the wife’s. The Court doesn’t believe the anti-lapse statute covers that because the definition, in the Court’s view, of the husband’s situation doesn’t meet the prerequisites for the anti-lapse statute to apply. Rather, the Court looks at it in an attempt to carry out the intent of Mister. And it is clear that Mister said that if my wife is alive at the time of my death, I want her to have everything I own.

Well, the wife was alive at the time of his death, and therefore, to carry out his intention, this asset should go to the wife. The Court finds no support for a theory that would say, well, you don’t look at really was she alive at the time of his death, which was the contingency as he provided for; rather, you should look to is she alive at the time the asset comes into his estate, which is not the case. That would not be consistent with what the Court believes his expression of intent was.... We agree with the result reached by the trial court.

We observe that Mr. Segal’s will called for his wife to be his sole beneficiary if she survived him and that she did in fact survive him. We attempt to determine what Mr. Segal’s intentions would have been in the event that his wife would not have been the beneficiary to his will. Appellant suggests that, by naming his nieces and nephews as contingent beneficiaries under his will, Mr. Segal displayed an intention to provide for them if his wife would not benefit ⁵⁴⁶ from the disposition. Appellant points out that, although his wife survived him, she was nonetheless deceased at the time her estate came into his estate.

Arguably, there is merit to appellant’s rationale as to Mr. Segal’s intentions under his will. It can be argued that the naming of contingent beneficiaries in his will discloses his intent that if his wife would not benefit from the property then his nieces and nephews should. Based on this rationale, it is reasonable to conclude that Mr. Segal could have simply provided that his estate pass to his wife and her heirs if he had actually intended to benefit his wife’s heirs with his estate in the event that his wife would not receive it. On the other hand, there is also credence to the interpretation suggested by appellees that Mr. Segal did in fact intend for things to take place as the trial court ruled.

Appellees assert that, had Louis Segal wished for his wife to have his property while she was alive, and for his nieces and nephews to receive the property upon Mrs. Segal’s death, he could have created a life estate for his wife, with the remainder passing to his nieces and nephews. We find no refuge in the ambiguity of Mr. Segal’s intentions as postulated by both rationales. Therefore, to avoid Scylla and Charybdis, our polestar is Mr. Segal’s intentions as set forth in the precise words he used in his will. Interpreted in this manner, it is pellucid that Mr. Segal intended for his wife to receive the property if she survived him.

This she did. Consequently, his intention is carried out upon the vesting of his property in his wife, and the clause in his will regarding contingent beneficiaries is never effectuated. Although the fact that she is deceased at the time the asset comes into his estate is an irony, that troubling result cannot serve to thwart the strict obedience to the wording of Mr. Segal’s will. Appellant suggests that the purpose of the anti-lapse statute is to avoid intestacy. “The purpose of the lapsed legacy statute is to transfer the legacy to the legatee’s distributees or ‘representatives’ instead of the testator’s distributees or ‘representatives’—to prevent intestacy, not to cause escheat____” Mayor of Balto. v. White, 189 Md. 571, 575-76 , 56 ⁵⁴⁷ A.2d 824 (1948). “A fundamental ingrained principle of the testamentary law of Maryland is that when a will contains a residuary clause, the courts will employ every intendment against general or partial intestacy.” Murray v. Willett, 36 Md.App. 551, 552 , 873 A.2d 1303 (1977).

We note the obvious—that neither Mr. Segal nor Mrs. Segal would have gone through the trouble of making a will if either had intended to die intestate. Although we agree with appellant regarding the preference to avoid intestacy, that proposition can be upheld only to the extent that it does not negate the intent of the will in question. We have already indicated that Mr. Segal’s intent was quite simply to pass his property to his wife if she survived him. She did in fact survive him; therefore, intestacy in this instance simply cannot be avoided, as doing so would conflict with the direction provided by Mr. Segal’s will.

We reject appellant’s claim that Mr. Segal would not have wanted his wife’s heirs to take this bequest given to him by his wife. Once his wife survived him, his wife was free to deal with the property as she chose. Appellant’s claim cannot control, unless supported by the language of the will, in view of the anti-lapse statute. It is presumed that Mr. Louis Segal intended the statute to apply, and the burden of showing an intent to the contrary is upon those who assert it, here the appellant.

This burden has not been met by appellant. Any hardship to appellant that results from this conclusion is chargeable from what the testator said in his will. Vance v. Johnson, 171 Md. 435, 441-42 , 188 A. 805 (1937). “Statutes for the prevention of lapses are intended, not to defeat the will, but to supplement it, and ought not to control if it be inconsistent with the will to have them control.” Vogel v. Turnt, 110 Md. 192, 197 , 72 A. 661 (1909). The pivotal case on the issues before us is Simpson v. Piscano, 288 Md. 560 , 419 A.2d 1059 (1980).

In Simpson , the wife and husband executed reciprocal wills whereby they left to each other their respective estates. Neither will contained a contingency provision in the event that the spouse did not ⁵⁴⁸ survive the testator. The husband died first, and the issue before the Court of Appeals involved the disposition of the wife’s estate, and whether the anti-lapse statute provided for the wife’s estate to pass to the husband’s heirs or back to the wife’s heirs. The Court of Appeals held that the property should be distributed to the wife’s heirs as if she had died intestate.

Appellant contends that Simpson is not controlling in this instance because there were no contingent beneficiaries in Simpson , while in the case sub judice Mr. Segal did name contingent beneficiaries. Appellees, on the other hand, contend that Simpson is directly on point in this case, as the contingency clause in Mr. Segal’s will is never triggered, because his wife had in fact survived him, and, therefore, the trial court’s decision should be affirmed. Although we do not reach this decision easily, we agree with appellees’ interpretation of the anti-lapse statute. The proper interpretation is that the anti-lapse statute is applicable at the time of the legatee’s death, rather than at the time the asset actually comes into the legatee’s estate.

This is of primary significance in this case because the point in