## Facts

- Jennie McCauley executed a will on February 12 that included multiple charitable bequests.
- On March 16, McCauley executed a codicil altering certain gifts to individual beneficiaries but leaving the charitable bequests unchanged.
- McCauley died on April 14, 28 days after executing the codicil.
- A California mortmain statute voided charitable bequests made within 30 days of the testator’s death, with the affected property passing to the State by escheat.
- The State argued that the codicil republished the will as of March 16, thereby placing the charitable bequests within the 30-day prohibition.
- The charitable beneficiaries argued the charitable bequests were “made” on February 12 (more than 30 days before death) and were not re-dated by a codicil that did not change them.

## Issues

1. Whether a codicil executed within 30 days of death republished the entire will so that unchanged charitable bequests are deemed made on the codicil date and are void under the mortmain statute.
2. Whether the statutory republication-by-codicil rule must be applied to preserve the testator’s intent and harmonize related probate statutes, rather than extending the mortmain limitation to provisions untouched by the codicil.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed the decree sustaining the charitable bequests.
- The court held the mortmain statute did not void the charitable devises because the codicil did not re-date charitable gifts it did not modify.
- The estate property subject to the charitable bequests did not escheat to the State.

## Legal Principles

- A codicil generally republishes a will as modified, but the republication doctrine is not absolute and must be construed with related wills statutes.
- For restrictive statutes such as mortmain provisions, the will is treated as speaking from the codicil date only to the extent the codicil requires; provisions independent of the codicil’s changes are not automatically re-dated.
- Statutory interpretation in probate should, where reasonably possible, carry out the testator’s known intent and avoid results that defeat a coherent dispositive plan.
- Courts disfavor constructions that create partial intestacy or escheat when consistent statutory interpretation can preserve valid testamentary dispositions.

## Conclusion

The court refused to treat an unchanged charitable bequest as “made” on the date of a later codicil for mortmain purposes, limiting republication by codicil to the provisions the codicil actually affects and preserving the testatrix’s charitable gifts from statutory invalidation and escheat.


In re Estate of McCauley, 71 P. 512 (Cal. 1903)