Estate of Thall

Solomon Thall’s will established a trust for the residue of his estate, for his wife for her lifetime, with trust income to be shared by the wife; Thall’s sister, Sophie Levitsky; and Sophie’s sons, Emanuel and Ben Landis. The will provided that upon the wife’s death, the trust corpus should go to Sophie, Emanuel, and Ben; if Sophie predeceased Thall or his wife, her share should go to Emanuel and Ben; if Emanuel or Ben predeceased Thall or his wife with issue, that nephew’s share should pass to his issue; and if Emanuel or Ben predeceased Thall or his wife without issue, that nephew’s share should pass to his brother. Finally, the will provided $1,000 gifts to Thall’s other, collateral relatives and stated that such gifts would lapse if the relatives predeceased him. Ben died in 1956 survived by his daughter, Barbara. Sophie died in 1961. Emanuel died in 1962 without issue. Thall’s wife survived Sophie, Emanuel, and Ben. The will did not provide for the disposition of Sophie, Emanuel, and Ben’s interests in trust income if they predeceased the wife. In addition, the will did not account for one of Sophie’s sons dying with issue prior to the death of the other son without issue. In other words, the will did not provide for the scenario in which Emanuel or Ben died without issue and was survived not by his brother, but by his brother’s issue. The surrogate court ruled that the trust income, except for the wife’s interest, and the trust corpus should be divided equally among Barbara and Thall’s distributees when he died. The appellate court ruled that all trust income, except for the wife’s interest, should go to Thall’s distributees when he died, and that all the trust corpus should go to Barbara when the wife died.