Morse v. Sharkey
Michigan Supreme Court
764 N.W.2d 1 (2009)
Alice Raymond's will left half her estate to 'my brothers and sisters that survive me share and share alike or to the survivor or survivors thereof' and the other half to 'the brothers and sisters of my husband that survive me share and share alike or to the survivor or survivors thereof'; by the time Alice died, several of her own and her husband's siblings had already predeceased her. Alice's surviving brother (plaintiff) petitioned for probate, while children and grandchildren of the predeceased siblings (defendants) argued they were entitled to take as 'the survivor or survivors' of their deceased parents; the probate court and court of appeals both held only siblings who survived Alice could take.
Whether, where a will unambiguously limits the class of beneficiaries who may take under the will to those siblings who survive the testator, the descendants of predeceased siblings may take under the will.