In re Estate of Werner

Gesina Werner died in the year 1906 in San Francisco, leaving a last will and testament, admitted to probate, which contained the following trust provision:

The five grandchildren of the deceased are made the residuary legatees of said estate by reason of said trust clause. *227 Counsel for Willie Menne and Walter Menne, two of said grandchildren, have attacked the validity of said trust clause on the ground that the power of alienation is suspended beyond the lives of persons in being at the time of the creation of the trust. Should this contention be upheld by the court, Ida Hansen, Alice Brough and Mabel Werner, the other three grandchildren, would be cut off entirely in sharing in said estate, and Willie Menne and Walter Menne would receive between them one-half of said estate, and the other half of said estate would go to the parents of said Ida Hansen, Alice Brough and Mabel Werner.

It is conceded that the provisions of the will providing for accumulations beyond the period of majority are void: Civ. Code, sec. 723.

The accumulations thus derived will be distributed among the heirs at law. In the present case one-half of such accumulations will go to Louis Menne, and the…