MCGOWAN (SHARON), ET AL. VS. BOGLE (EARL), ET AL.
Annotate this Case
Download PDF
RENDERED: FEBRUARY 4, 2011; 10:00 A.M.
TO BE PUBLISHED
Commonwealth of Kentucky
Court of Appeals
NO. 2010-CA-000118-MR
SHARON MCGOWAN; SHARON MCGOWAN,
CO-EXECUTRIX OF THE ESTATE OF
MILDRED BOGLE HUDSON; AMANDA
SPEARS, CO-EXECUTRIX OF THE
ESTATE OF MILDRED BOGLE HUDSON;
DONALD HOUSTON BOGLE;
MELODIE BOGLE SPEARS;
GLENN A. BOGLE; DAVID TYREE;
TERRY SULLIVAN; CHARLES L. ECKSTEIN;
SHERRY SULLIVAN RAMEY; AND
NORMA LOU ECKSTEIN DWYER
v.
APPELLANTS
APPEAL FROM PULASKI CIRCUIT COURT
HONORABLE DAVID A. TAPP, JUDGE
ACTION NO. 09-CI-01044
EARL BOGLE; TOMMY L. BOGLE;
JAMES R. BOGLE; GLENN R. BOGLE;
MILDRED SUE NORTH; MELVA JUNE
POINTER; ROSELYN BISHOP; KENNETH
GEORGE YOUNG; PARKER WAYNE BOGLE;
ANTHONY EADS, JR.; MICHAEL THOMAS
EADS; MARTINA EADS; ROBERT EADS;
BARBARA EADS WELBERS; DOROTHY C.
LACEY; AND MICKIE YOUNG PAZIENZA
APPELLEES
OPINION
AFFIRMING
** ** ** ** **
BEFORE: CAPERTON AND THOMPSON, JUDGES; ISAAC,1 SENIOR
JUDGE.
THOMPSON, JUDGE: This is a will construction dispute in which the sole
question is whether the anti-lapse statutes require that the children of the
predeceased beneficiaries inherit under the will. The Pulaski Circuit Court found
that that the anti-lapse statutes were not applicable because the will unambiguously
expressed the intention that the beneficiaries survive the testator in order to inherit
under the will. We agree and affirm.
The facts are undisputed and brief. On August 9, 2006, testator,
Mildred Bogle Hudson, executed a will. Item II of the will states:
I direct that my Executrix shall cause my entire estate both real,
personal or mixed to liquidate and after payment of all charges against
my estate as set forth above or otherwise legally chargeable to my
estate, the residue of the proceeds shall be distributed equally among
my living brothers and sister who survive me. Those living at the
present time are Corine Bogle Tyree of Atlanta, Georgia, Al Jerry
Bogle of Somerset, Kentucky, and Huston Bogle of Somerset,
Kentucky.
When Mildred executed her will, seven of her siblings were deceased. At the time
of Mildred’s death in May 2009, the three remaining siblings designated as
beneficiaries were also deceased.
1
Senior Judge Sheila Isaac sitting as Special Judge by assignment of the Chief Justice pursuant
to Section 110(5)(b) of the Kentucky Constitution and KRS 21.580.
-2-
The appellees are the children or grandchildren of the seven siblings who
were deceased in 2006 when Mildred executed her will. The appellants are
children of Huston Bogle, Al Jerry Bogle, and Corine Bogle Tyree and a
granddaughter of Al Jerry Bogle.
The appellees filed an action in the Pulaski Circuit Court asserting that
because the three named beneficiaries in the will predeceased Mildred, the
bequeaths lapsed and the estate must pass under the Kentucky law of descent and
distribution. The appellants countered that KRS 394.400 and KRS 394.410, the
anti-lapse statutes, prevented lapse of the bequeath to the deceased siblings and the
entire estate passed to them as the descendants of the three designated siblings
alive when the will was executed.
Both parties moved for summary judgment. The circuit court found that the
anti-lapse statutes did not apply because Mildred expressly intended that only the
siblings that survived her inherit under the will.
We review a summary judgment de novo and will affirm the granting of a
summary judgment only when it appears impossible for the non-movant to prove
facts establishing a right to relief. Steelvest, Inc. v. Scansteel Service Center, Inc.,
807 S.W.2d 476 (Ky. 1991). In this case, the question presented is one of
statutory interpretation.
Prior to the enactment of anti-lapse statutes, when a named beneficiary
under a will predeceased the testator, the share of the deceased beneficiary
“lapsed” and generally passed according to the residuary clause, if it existed, or the
-3-
laws of intestacy. Blevins v. Moran, 12 S.W.3d 698 (Ky.App. 2000). Because the
common law result was frequently not in conformity with the testator’s intent,
States, including Kentucky, enacted anti-lapse statutes. Kentucky’s anti-lapse
statutes are KRS 394.400 and KRS 394.410.
KRS 394.400 provides:
If a devisee or legatee dies before the testator, or is dead
at the making of the will, leaving issue who survive the
testator, such issue shall take the estate devised or
bequeathed, as the devisee or legatee would have done if
he had survived the testator, unless a different disposition
thereof is made or required by the will.
KRS 394.410, which governs a devise that is made to several persons as a class
and reiterates the provision of KRS 394.400, provides:
(1) When a devise is made to several as a class or as
tenants in common, and one (1) or more of the devisees
die before the testator, and another or others survive the
testator, the share or shares of such as so die shall go to
his or their descendants, if any; if none, to the surviving
devisees, unless a different disposition is made by the
devisor.
(2) A devise to children embraces grandchildren when
there are no children, and no other construction will give
effect to the devise.
(3) If a devise is made to several as joint tenants with
right of survivorship and one (1) or more of the devisees
dies before the testator and another or others survive the
testator, the share or shares of such as so die shall go to
such as so survive. Provided, however, in the event of
the death of all the joint tenants before the death of the
testator, the order of death of the joint tenants shall not
affect the devolution of the property and, in this case,
devolution shall be governed by subsection (1) hereof, as
-4-
if the devise had been made to the deceased devisees as
tenants in common.
Pursuant to the anti-lapse statutes, where a will beneficiary predeceases the
testator and leaves issue who survives the testator, the statutes create “a rebuttable
presumption that the surviving issue was meant to be substituted in the will for its
ancestor.” Blevins, 12 S.W.3d at 702. However, the statutes are not without a
caveat: The presumption applies “unless a different disposition is made by the
devisor.” KRS 394.400 and KRS 394.410. It is not the purpose of the anti-lapse
statutes to restrict the testator’s right to select the beneficiary but to “carry out the
presumed intent of the testator, if he had thought of the possibility of a beneficiary
predeceasing him.” Slattery v. Kelsch, 734 S.W.2d 813, 814 (Ky.App.
1987)(emphasis original). “Other rules of construction, including the anti-lapse
statute itself, are to be invoked only when the testator’s intent is otherwise
unclear.” Blevins, 12 S.W.3d at 701.
Slattery involved facts strikingly similar to those now presented. The
testator executed a will that contained a residuary clause devising the residue of the
estate to “my first cousins living at the time of my death.” Id. at 814. The children
of the testator’s deceased first cousin claimed an interest in the estate through the
applicability of the anti-lapse statutes. The Court held the anti-lapse statute did not
apply. Quoting In Re Estate of Kerr, 433 F.2d 479, 481 (DC Cir. 1970), the Court
reasoned:
-5-
Where, …, the will reflects a countervailing
intention with reasonable clarity, the statute does not save
the gift from lapse.
Such an intention is manifested, and plainly so,
where the will articulates the gift in words effectively
conditioning its efficacy upon the beneficiary's survival
of the testator. (Footnote omitted). If, in such a
situation, the beneficiary predeceases the testator, the
statutory bar to lapse and the concomitant substitution of
issue in the beneficiary's stead are at war with the
testator's purpose that the gift shall take effect only in the
event that the beneficiary outlives the benefactor. Not at
all surprisingly, then, the cases teach that antilapse
legislation has no application to gifts limited to vest upon
the beneficiary's survival of the testator and not
otherwise. (Footnote omitted).
Id. at 815.
The words used by the testator in Slattery and by Mildred are
semantically consistent. Mildred unequivocally conditioned the bequest to “my
living brothers and sister who survive me” and listed the brothers and sister living
at the time she executed her will. Pursuant to the reasoning in Slattery, Mildred
clearly expressed her intent that only those siblings who were living at the time of
her death inherit under to the will.
Appellants point out that Slattery was decided before the 1990
revision of the Uniform Probate Code that expands its anti-lapse provision and
suggests that the language used by Mildred under the current Code is insufficient
to express an intent contrary to the anti-lapse statutes. In Blevins, the Court
emphasized that Kentucky has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code and it is not
the controlling authority. Blevins, 12 S.W.3d at 702. Thus, we are not persuaded
-6-
that the revisions to the Code warrant a deviation from the law expressed in
Slattery. We conclude that the use of language conditioning the gifts on the
survival of the beneficiaries at the time of Mildred’s death was sufficient to defeat
the application of the anti-lapse statutes.
Despite the factual similarities, appellants distinguish Slattery where
only one of the beneficiaries of the designated class died before the testator. They
argue that a different result is compelled where, as here, all the beneficiaries
intended to be “joint tenants with rights of survivorship” as used in KRS
394.410(3) die prior to the testator. We agree with the trial court that regardless of
distinction, the result is the same. Under KRS 394.410(3), in instances when all
joint tenants die prior to the testator, KRS 394.410(1) applies and the bequeath
lapses if “a different disposition is made by the devisor.” Mildred expressly stated
that only her brothers and sister who survived her inherit under the terms of the
will, thus, appellants’ distinction is inconsequential.
In a further attempt to avoid the result mandated by Slattery,
appellants argue that Blevins impliedly overruled Slattery. The Blevins opinion
emphasized that the anti-lapse statutes create a rebuttable presumption that the
surviving issue be substituted in the will for a deceased beneficiary and ultimately
held that the testator did not intend to prevent the application of the anti-lapse
statutes. However, the issue in Blevins substantially differed from the present
question.
-7-
The testator in Blevins made four separate bequeaths to four separate
beneficiaries all of whom predeceased the testator. Significantly, the bequeaths to
the four deceased beneficiaries did not contain any language conditioning the gifts
upon the survival of the beneficiaries. However, a residual clause provided:
All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, both real and
personal, wherever situated and of whatever nature, kind and
description that I own at my death, including legacies and devises, if
any, which may lapse or fail for any reason, I give, devise and
bequeath to my nephews, Donald W. Blevins and Barkley L. Blevins
in fee simple in equal shares.
Id. at 700.
The Court held that the bequeaths of lapsed gifts to the residuary legatees
did not defeat the application of the anti-lapse statutes to the bequeaths to the four
beneficiaries who died with issue before the testator. The Court held:
In sum, although in other jurisdictions the result would perhaps
be different, we are persuaded that the recital in a will's residuary
clause that the residue is to include lapsed and failed gifts is not by
itself sufficient evidence of a testator's contrary intent to overcome the
strong presumption against lapse provided by KRS 394.400. Such
clauses are to be construed, like all other will clauses, in light of the
entire document, and are only to be given preclusive effect when such
clearly was the testator's intent.
Id. at 704.
The Blevins holding is not applicable in this case because there was no
residuary clause, only bequeaths to the brothers and sister who survived the
testator. Certainly, had Mildred intended to avoid the laws of intestate distribution,
she could have included a residuary clause designating her intended beneficiaries,
including the appellants. Instead, the will reveals her express intent that only her
-8-
brothers and sister who survived at the time of her death inherit her estate and, if
all were deceased, that the estate pass intestate.
Because Mildred’s will expressly and unambiguously stated her
intention that her brothers and sister inherit pursuant to its terms only if surviving
at the time of her death, the circuit court was not required to admit the extrinsic
evidence sought to be introduced by appellants regarding their relationship with
Mildred. The general rule is that if a will is unambiguous, no construction is called
for, and extrinsic evidence may not be introduced as an aid to construction. Dils v.
Richey, 431 S.W.2d 497, 498 (Ky. 1968).
Based on the foregoing, the judgment of the Pulaski Circuit Court is
affirmed.
ALL CONCUR.
BRIEF FOR APPELLANTS:
BRIEF FOR APPELLEE:
Amanda Spears, Pro Se
Somerset, Kentucky
D. Bruce Orwin
Somerset, Kentucky
-9-
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.