Robert Leslie Wilkes, Petitioners v. Margaret Alice Wilkes, Respondent

Summary

The court held that Belle Shumard’s references to Virginia Wilkes’s “lineal descendants” created a class gift capable of changing in membership, rather than a gift vested in Robert S. Wilkes alone. Robert could receive trust income while he remained a qualifying descendant, but he could not devise that interest to his wife, and Margaret could never share in the principal because she was not Virginia’s lineal descendant. The court reversed the court of civil appeals and affirmed the trial court.