Sidle v Queensland Trustees Limited [1915] HCA 48

OF AUSTRALIA. 557

[HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.)

. 2 i " 1 : APPELLANT ; DEFENDANT,

AND

QUEENSLAND 'TRUSTEES LIMITED "tine AND OTHERS : } SPONDENTS.

PLAINTIFFS AND DEFENDANTS, ON APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND.

ill—Construction— Vested interests in " sons" for life—Gift over—Meaning of H. C. ov A. "'child or issue" of testator. . 1915,

—— A testator devised and bequeathed his residuary estate to his two ''sons" BRISBANE,

and to his trustees to convert and invest, and stand possessed of the "trust 7,4 99, 30; _ premises " upon certaiu trusts, the first of which was to divide the trust Aug. 2. premises into two equal shares and to appropriate one to each of his "sons,"

and to pay the income of each share to the 'son" to whom the share is Gata' ny appropriated during his life. The will also contained provisions for the benefit *"7 Powers 14. of the "children or remoter iasne of such son," " from and after the death of

each such son," and declared that '' if there shall be no child or issue of mine

who shall attain a vested interest in the trust premises" under the previous

provisions, the trustees are to hold the residuary estate upon trust for certain

nephews and nieces of the testator. The two sons (who were the only issue

of the testator) survived him, but both of them died subsequently leaving no

issue.

Held, that, reading the will as a whole, the word * child" did not include a son of the testator, but the words "child or issue of mine" were intended to refer to the children or remoter issue of the testator's sons, and that the sons took vested interests for life only ; and that, therefore, there was no intestacy —the gift over to the nephews and nieces having become operative.

Decision of the Supreme Court of Queensland : Re Sidle, (1914) S.R. (Qd.), 215, affirmed.

H. C. or A. 1915. od SipLe