In re Estate of Lee

Mrs. Lee's will created a trust whose fifth and sixth clauses, providing for distribution to grandchildren or great-grandchildren upon all grandchildren reaching 40 or dying, were conceded to violate the rule against perpetuities and were void; an eighth clause provided that if any part of the will were invalidated by the perpetuities rule, the trust would continue as long as legally permitted, with distribution on the day before legal termination to those named in the will "who would be entitled to take distribution thereon upon termination of the trust," while a tenth clause provided that invalidating any part of the will would not affect the rest. Appellants argued the eighth clause was too indefinite to identify beneficiaries since it depended on the same void fifth and sixth clauses, meaning Lee died intestate with her son Fairman as sole heir; the trial court found the eighth clause sufficiently definite and enforceable, and the appellants appealed.