O'Donoghue v. Dooley

Summary

The Oklahoma Supreme Court reviewed whether trust principal bequests to two deceased grandchildren, made per stirpes, passed to the widow of one grandchild or lapsed because neither grandchild left lineal descendants. The court held that the per stirpes gifts did not benefit the grandchild's widow and that the interests lapsed, leaving the remaining trust principal to pass under the trust provisions to the beneficiary of the trust income. The court vacated the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion and affirmed the district court's judgment for the trustee.

Holdings

1. A spouse of a devisee is not a lineal descendant of the devisee and is ineligible to take under a trust provision requiring distribution per stirpes.
2. The grandchildren's per stirpes remainder interests lapsed when they died without lineal descendants before the death of the settlor's surviving spouse.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a trust provision directing distribution of remaining principal to the settlor's grandchildren per stirpes created interests that could pass to a grandchild's surviving spouse when the grandchild died without lineal descendants.
2. Whether the grandchildren's remainder interests lapsed when they died without lineal descendants before the settlor's surviving spouse.
3. Whether the remaining trust principal should pass under the trust to the beneficiary then entitled to trust income.

Disposition

vacated