A testator by his trust-disposition and settlement directed his trustees to pay to Mrs S., out of funds invested in his business, a legacy of pounds 4000, with interest at the rate of 5 per cent. if she allowed the money to remain in the business.
In an indenture of settlement made three years previously in contemplation of the marriage of Mrs S., the testator had bound his executors, within six months after his death, to pay to the trustees named in the indenture a sum of pounds 4000, with interest at the rate of 4 per cent. from the date of his death, in trust for behoof of Mrs S., and her husband if he survived her, in liferent, and the children of the marriage in fee. Failing children, the sum was to revert to the granter’s estate. By the indenture Mrs S. conveyed her acquirenda to the trustees upon the same trusts, except that if there should be no son of the marriage who should attain majority, or daughter who should attain that age or marry, the trustees were to hold the capital of such acquirenda for such purposes as Mrs S. should by will direct, or failing such direction, for her representatives in intestacy.
Held ( aff. judgment of the Second Division) that the legacy was not in satisfaction of the marriage-contract provision, and that the trustees were entitled to payment of both.
Opinion by Lord Watson and Lord Shand, that it was not competent to lead evidence to show that the testator used the term ‘legacy’ in his will in a sense other than its ordinary sense.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Halsbury), Lord Watson, Lord Herschell, Lord Macnaghten, Lord Morris, and Lord Shand
Citations:
[1896] UKHL 511, 33 SLR 511
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Wills and Probate
Updated: 27 April 2022; Ref: scu.634011