In re the Accounting of Lamb

Headnote

Matter of Lamb, 182 App. Div. 180 , affirmed.

Appeal from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the second .judicial department, entered March 7, 1918, which modified and affirmed as modified a decree of the Nassau County Surrogate’s Court construing the will of Arthur Gibb, deceased. By his will testator provided: “Second. I give and bequeath to my Executors hereinafter named, the sum of Two Hundred Thousand ($200,000) Dollars, in trust however, for the following purposes, to wit: To invest and keep invested, and collect and receive the interest and income derived therefrom, and pay over the same in semi-annual instalments, to my step-mother Sarah M. Gibb, for and during her natural life, and upon her decease to pay over the principal of said Trust, Fund, together with all interest and income earned and accrued and unpaid, to my brothers Henry Elmer Gibb and Lewis Mills Gibb, share and share alike, whereupon said Trust shall cease and determine.” The two brothers died before the life beneficiary and the question was whether on her death the principal of the trust fund fell into the residuary estate, or whether the gift to them became vested on the death of the testator and the principal of the fund is now payable to their respective estates. There was a further question involved as to whether the interest accrued on the trust fund to the date of the life tenant’s death should be paid to her estate or should go to the parties entitled to' receive the principal of the trust fund. On the first point the. surrogate held that

the principal of the fund was to be divided between the estates of the two brothers. On the second point the surrogate held that the accrued interest should also go to the estates of the two brothers. The Appellate Division affirmed the decree of the surrogate on the first point, but modified it on the second, holding that the accrued interest up to the date of "the death of the life tenant belonged to her estate.