The Estate of William Morris Colles

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 22 November 1917
• Date: 22 November 1917
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)

In the Matter of the Estate of William Morris Colles (1).

Appeal.

CASES

DETERMINED BY

THE CHANCERY DIVISION

OF

THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE IN IRELAND

AND BY

THE IRISH LAND COMMISSION,

AND ON APPEAL THEREFROM IN

THE COURT OF APPEAL.

1918.

Settlement — Construction — Equitable interests in really — No words of limitation — Trust to convey — Period of distribution.

By a marriage settlement real property was conveyed to a trustee upon trust, after the solemnization of the marriage, to permit the wife to receive the Tents for her life, then to permit the husband to receive the rents for his life, should he survive, then upon trust to convey the property to the children of the marriage, subject to appointment, and in default of appointment to the children of the marriage, if more than one, share and share alike, and if only one, then to such only child, and upon further trust, after the death of the survivor of the husband and wife, in case there should not be any issue of the marriage, to convey the property to S. and G., sisters of the wife, their and each of their executors, administrators, and assigns; and if either of them should die leaving issue, then upon trust to convey the share of her so dying to her issue, if more than one, share and share alike, and upon trust after the decease of the wife, husband, S. and G., without issue of any of them, to convey the property unto the children of the late H. B., if more than one, share and share alike; and if only one such child, the whole to such only child. There was no issue of the marriage. S. and G. died unmarried. Both they and the husband died in the lifetime of the wife. She subsequently

died. There were ten children of H. B. living at the date of the settlement, eight of whom survived the wife.

Held, by the Court of Appeal (affirming the decision of Wylie J.), that the period of distribution of the trust estate was the date of the death of the survivor of the wife, husband, S. and G., and that, in the events which had happened, the children of H. B., then surviving, were entitled to call for a conveyance.

This was an appeal by Miss E. G. Maddock and G. Daly from, an order of Wylie J., dated the 24th March, 1917, by which the learned judge held that on the true construction of a marriage settlement, dated the 15th October, 1863, and made on the occasion of the marriage of Eliza Abbott with Edward G. Daly, and in the events which had happened, the children of Henry Bailey living at the date of the...