## Facts

- Dr. Jesse C. Coggins’s will left a residuary charitable bequest to the Home for Incurables of Baltimore City (Keswick Home) to construct a new building for physical rehabilitation patients.
- The will limited the building’s use to “white patients who need physical rehabilitation.”
- The will included a gift-over clause providing that if the bequest was “not acceptable” to Keswick, the bequest would go to the University of Maryland Hospital for physical rehabilitation.
- Keswick asserted it could not lawfully comply with the racial restriction but otherwise accepted the bequest.
- Maryland law prohibits hospitals and related institutions from discriminating in providing personal care on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
- On cross-motions for summary judgment on a stipulated record, the circuit court granted summary judgment to the University, directing the bequest to the alternative beneficiary.

## Issues

1. Whether an illegal racial condition in a charitable bequest renders the gift “not acceptable” to the named beneficiary, triggering a gift-over to an alternative beneficiary.
2. Whether the unlawful racial limitation should instead be severed so the primary charitable bequest is enforced without the illegal condition.

## Decision

- The Maryland Court of Appeals reversed.
- The court held the racial restriction was clearly illegal and could not be enforced.
- The court refused to treat Keswick’s inability to comply with an illegal condition as making the bequest “not acceptable” for purposes of activating the gift-over.
- The court ordered the will enforced by excising the word “white” and honoring the bequest to Keswick without regard to race.
- The case was remanded with instructions to enter judgment consistent with enforcing the bequest to Keswick absent the unlawful condition.

## Legal Principles

- When a testamentary bequest contains a condition that is clearly illegal, the illegal condition should be excised and the bequest enforced as if the illegal condition did not exist.
- Courts construe wills, where reasonably possible, to avoid illegality and to carry out the testator’s valid charitable intent.
- A gift-over provision should not be applied in a manner that effectively enforces or rewards an illegal discriminatory condition by diverting the bequest based on the primary beneficiary’s refusal or inability to discriminate.

## Conclusion

The court enforced the testator’s charitable intent by severing the unlawful racial restriction from the bequest and rejecting the alternative disposition, directing that the gift be paid to Keswick for rehabilitation purposes without racial limitation.


Home for Incurables of Balt. City v. Univ. of Md. Med. Sys. Corp., 797 A.2d 746 (Md. 2002)