## Facts

- The decedent’s will placed part of his estate in a testamentary trust for his grandchildren.
- The will directed the trustee to distribute each grandchild’s share of the trust principal when that grandchild reached age thirty.
- At the decedent’s death, there were six living grandchildren.
- After the decedent died, but before any grandchild reached thirty and became entitled to principal, three additional grandchildren were born.
- The trustee filed a proceeding seeking construction of the will to determine who belonged to the class “grandchildren” and when the class closed for purposes of dividing and distributing the trust estate.
- The trial court construed the will to give the six grandchildren living at the decedent’s death vested interests, but concluded the class remained open and could be reopened with each after-born grandchild, with final closure only when the trust was fully distributed.
- The trustee appealed from that construction.

## Issues

1. When a will creates a class gift to the testator’s “grandchildren” with principal to be distributed to each grandchild at age thirty, does the class remain open until the trust is fully distributed, or does it close at an earlier distribution-related event?

## Decision

- The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the trial court’s construction that the class would repeatedly reopen with each new grandchild until the entire trust was distributed.
- The court treated the bequest as a class gift and held that the grandchildren living at the testator’s death took vested interests as members of the class, subject to later adjustment if additional grandchildren entered the class before the class-closing time.
- The court held the class remained open only until the time fixed for distribution of principal to a class member—when the first grandchild became entitled to receive principal upon reaching age thirty—at which point the class closed.
- Accordingly, grandchildren born after the decedent’s death could share only if they were born before the class closed; later-born grandchildren were excluded once the closing event occurred.
- The judgment was affirmed in part and modified in part to reflect this class-closing rule.

## Legal Principles

- A gift “to my grandchildren” is generally construed as a class gift unless the will shows an intent to make separate gifts to named individuals.
- Class gifts favor early vesting: members alive at the testator’s death typically take vested interests, subject to open to let in additional class members before the class closes.
- When distribution to a class is postponed to a stated time or event (such as a beneficiary attaining a stated age), the class ordinarily closes at the time a member first becomes entitled to distribution of principal (a distribution-based closing rule often described as a rule of convenience).
- A construction that keeps a class perpetually reopenable is disfavored where the will provides a workable distribution event that permits the trustee to determine beneficiaries and shares at a definite time.

## Conclusion

In In re Evans’ Estate, the Wisconsin Supreme Court construed a testamentary trust for the testator’s “grandchildren” and held that although the grandchildren living at death held vested class interests subject to open, the class did not remain open until the trust was fully distributed; instead, it closed when the first grandchild became entitled to principal at age thirty, and only grandchildren born before that closing event could share.


In re Evans' Estate, 274 Wis. 459, 80 N.W.2d 408 (1957)