Julius T. Asche, as Executors v. Estelle Asche

Summary

The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's judgment, holding that the widow could not claim both the trust income provided by the will and dower rights, that her interest in the trust did not merge with the legal estate she acquired after her child's death, and that merger of legal and equitable estates requires the parties' intent and cannot occur where an intermediate trust estate exists. The court also affirmed the principle that a testator's direction to convert real property to money creates an equitable conversion that precludes the widow's dower claim.