Knopf v. William Robert Gray, Karen Ann Gray, & Polasek Farms, LLC

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court construed a will provision stating that land given to Bobby Gray was not to be sold but passed down to his children. The court held that, read as a whole, the will unambiguously granted Bobby a life estate and granted the named children the remainder interest. The court reversed the court of appeals and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The will unambiguously granted Bobby Gray a life estate in the land and granted Annette Knopf, Allison Kilway, and Stanley Gray remainder interests.
2. The no-sale language could not be treated in isolation as an invalid disabling restraint because it was an integral part of the life-estate grant.
3. The instructional language was testamentary and legally operative because, read in context, it clearly expressed Allen's intent to create a life estate and remainder interests.
4. Summary judgment was improper for the trial court and court of appeals to treat the will as devising a fee-simple interest; the Supreme Court resolved the legal construction issue and rendered judgment for the life-estate and remainder-interest construction.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Allen's will unambiguously devised a fee-simple interest or a life-estate interest to Gray.
2. Whether the language directing that the land not be sold but be passed down to Gray's children created remainder interests or merely constituted an invalid restraint, precatory language, or nontestamentary language.
3. Whether summary judgment was proper when the will's meaning was allegedly ambiguous.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded