[WSBAPT] Interpretation of Will provision

Andrekita Silva ak at seattle-silvalaw.com
Mon May 1 21:58:00 PDT 2023


  Law Office of
F.ANDREKITA SILVA
_______________________________________________________  
                                                            
May  1, 2023
 
Jon,
 
I would vote for the second option- that A takes 100%.
 
When construing the provisions of a will, you have to try to ascertain  
the testator’s intent from the language of the instrument itself,  
considering the entire instrument and giving effect to every part of  
the instrument.
 
It is true that the testator includes his “grandchildren” in the first  
clause where he says they “share and share alike.” However, the words  
“by right of representation” would be meaningless if you say the  
grandkids take in equal shares to the testator’s own children.  When  
looking at the Will as a whole, it seems the testator was trying to  
differentiate his “children” from his “grandchildren" by using those  
two terms.  Otherwise, you’d have to construe the Will to mean the  
testator wanted his grandchildren’s children to take by representation  
in the event a child of his left predeceased him, leaving a child (a  
grandchild), and that grandchild predeceased him, too. He did probably  
want that but it seems less probable that he drafted with that  
scenario in mind, and more probable that the testator intended for his  
grandchildren to take by right of representation (and not equally.)
 
It is, admittedly, a terribly written Will. Enough for grandkids to  
fight for an equal share with A. 
I hope a lawyer didn’t prepare the Will!
 
My 2 cents.  I’m curious what others think.   Keep us posted!! 
 
andrekita
Law Office of F. Andrekita Silva
1325 Fourth Avenue, Suite 940
Seattle, Washington 98101-2509
206-224-8288
www.seattle-silvalaw.com[1]

Quoting Jon Fritzler <FritzlerLaw at outlook.com>:

> I would appreciate hearing how others would interpret the following  
> Will provision:
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>    “I give all of my estate to my children, A and B,  and my  
> grandchildren X, Y, and Z, and any children born subsequent hereto,  
> to be divided equally among said children, share and share alike, or  
> to their children by right of representation: PROVIDED, that as any  
> child of mine who has not reached the age of 25 years at the time of  
> my death, such child’s share of my estate shall go to my Trustee  
> hereinafter name in TRUST.”
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>    Assume that child B predeceased the testator and left no  
> descendants and X, Y, and Z are all adult children of A. 
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>    I see two possible interpretations:  A, X, Y, and Z each take 25%  
> because the phrase “I give all of my estate to my children, A and B,  
> and my grandchildren X, Y, and Z” includes the grandchildren, or, A  
> takes 100% because the phrase “to be divided equally among said  
> children share and share alike, or to their children by right of  
> representation” means that A’s children are only contingent  
> beneficiaries and since A survived the testator they take nothing.   
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>    Thoughts?
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>    Sincerely,
> Jon M. Fritzler
> Attorney at Law
> 717 E. 22nd St.
> Vancouver, WA 98663
> Tel. 360.818.4431
> Eml fritzlerlaw at outlook.com
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY
> The information contained in this email is intended only for the use  
> of the person or entity to whom it is addressed. This email may  
> contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the  
> person whose name appears above, or the person responsible for  
> delivering the email to the addressee, you are hereby notified that  
> reading, using, copying, distributing or disseminating this  
> communication is strictly prohibited. If you think that you have  
> received this email message in error, please email the sender at  
> fritzlerlaw at outlook.com. Thank you.
>
> ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE
> The security of communications via the Internet cannot be  
> guaranteed, especially without the use of encryption. In order to  
> protect the attorney-client privilege, please do not use email to  
> transmit confidential or sensitive information, or ask our office to  
> email confidential or sensitive information to you.
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     
>
>     



Links:
------
[1] http://www.seattle-silvalaw.com/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20230501/1d32863e/attachment.html>


More information about the WSBAPT mailing list