Opinion
Decided August, 1878.
In the case of a bequest to A of "one half of all the rents, profits, and income of all my property" during her life, and of the other half to B (the executor of the will), the property remaining undivided, it is the right and duty of the executor to collect the rents, and pay half of them to A.
IN EQUITY. This is the same case reported ante, page 12. By her last will, the testatrix gave the defendant and the plaintiff (whom she appointed executor thereof) each one half of all the income of all her property, real and personal, during the life of the defendant, the property "to be managed in the same manner as heretofore, without division." The executor desires to ascertain the legal construction of the will, as to the proper person to collect the rents.
Hobbs, for the plaintiff.
J. G. Hall and Woodman, for the defendant.
There is no uncertainty about the will. The intention of the testatrix is manifest, that the land be not divided, that the rents be collected as one income, and divided, half to be the property of the plaintiff and half to be the property of the defendant, which disposition naturally makes the plaintiff the defendant's agent for collecting the whole and paying half to her; and the whole will indicates the intention of the testatrix that the executor should be officially responsible, on the security of his bond, to the defendant for half the rents, with the qualification (attached by law to all such fiduciary employment) that he is a suitable person for that agency.
Case discharged.
STANLEY, J., did not sit.