Arment v. Shriners Crippled Childrens Hospitals

In Arment v. Shriners Crippled Childrens Hospitals, 1956 OK 53, 298 P.2d 1048, the testator made "seven specific devises" of eight tracts of real property, but it was "discovered that legal title to six of the eight tracts of real property which decedent had undertaken to devise was vested in decedent and his wife as joint tenants, . . . that upon his death legal title thereto vested in the surviving widow, and that one tract had been sold by decedent prior to death," so that, "of the property sought to be devised only one tract mentioned in the will was legally devisable." Under these circumstances, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held: "Under the factual situation presented in the case now before us not one of the eight bequests of real estate can be enforced. One fails because the property was disposed of prior to the death of the testator; six of the bequests fail because the property was owned jointly by the testator and his wife, and upon the death of the testator the entire title vested in the surviving spouse. Only the one remaining tract was owned exclusively by the testator, and under his will he devised a life estate in that tract to his wife, and at her death it was to go to the Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children. The wife elected to take under the laws of succession and declined the bequest under the will, so that she is entitled to receive in fee one-half of the tract, or rather, one-half of the money derived from the condemnation of the tract. There then remains for disposition only one-half of the condemnation money, . . .." (Arment, 1956 OK 53, 298 P.2d at 1053.)