Estate of Holt

Facts

Testator Father (Testator) established the trust at issue with income payable to his widow for life and, after her death, to pay the income to all of Testator’s heirs in equal shares per stirpes. At his death, Testator had eleven children. At the death of Testator’s widow, all eleven children were still living. Some deaths occurred after this point. A previous case regarding the will held that the interest belonging to a married son with an adoptive daughter was not an estate of inheritance. Therefore, despite the sons’ will, the interest went to his adoptive daughter. In this case the court ruled that the testator’s heirs were designated by the law governing intestate successions. Although these heirs differed from time to time due to death, the court did not rule that any of the grandchildren alive at Testator’s widows death were measuring lives for the Rule Against Perpetuities. Instead, the measuring lives were those of the eleven children who were alive at the creation of the trust. In this case, Appellant challenges a lower court judgment entered for Appellee in Appellee’s petition seeking instructions to determine the correct termination date of a trust. The lower court held that in order to avoid violating the Rule Against Perpetuities, the trust must terminate within twenty-one years after the death of the last survivor among Testator’s eleven children. Appellant argues that the trust should not terminate until twenty-one years after the death of the last survivor of Testator’s grandchildren who were alive at the time of Testator’s death.