## Facts

- A Texas testator owned a one-half interest connected to approximately 500 acres of mineral-bearing land.
- The testator’s will appointed Frost National Bank of San Antonio as executor.
- The will left the testator’s one-half interest to several cousins (the Weems) and stated that they should “hold [the interest] jointly.”
- After the testator’s death, a dispute arose over whether “jointly” created a joint tenancy with a right of survivorship (so that surviving cousins would take a deceased cousin’s share) or instead created a tenancy in common (so each cousin held a separate undivided share).
- The trial court construed the will as creating a tenancy in common rather than a joint tenancy.
- The cousins who claimed survivorship rights appealed.

## Issues

1. Does a will’s instruction that multiple beneficiaries “hold jointly” create a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, or do the beneficiaries take as tenants in common absent clearer survivorship language?

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the trial court.
- The will’s use of the word “jointly,” without more explicit survivorship language, did not create a joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
- The named beneficiaries took the devised interest as tenants in common.

## Legal Principles

- Texas law does not favor survivorship in co-ownership and requires clear language to create a joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
- Words such as “jointly,” standing alone, are commonly read to mean “together” and do not, by themselves, show an intent to give survivorship rights.
- When a testamentary gift is made to multiple named beneficiaries and survivorship is not clearly stated, the default construction is a tenancy in common, with each beneficiary holding an undivided fractional share.

## Conclusion

The court held that the will’s directive that the cousins “hold jointly” was not enough to create survivorship rights, so the cousins received the devised property interest as tenants in common rather than as joint tenants with right of survivorship.


Weems v. Frost National Bank of San Antonio, 301 S.W.2d 714 (1957)