Gunten v. McMaster

Contestants, Robert McMaster and James McMaster, nephews of Rachel A. Shaw, deceased, appeal as of right from a May 2, 1983, order of the probate court, construing and interpreting the decedent’s will.

The court found paragraph III of decedent’s last wrill and testament to be a residuary clause passing the entire residue of her estate to Anna M. Von Gunten, decedent’s niece and the will proponent. Contestants argued below, and again on appeal, that paragraph III is a simultaneous death clause, that the simultaneous death condition was not fulfilled, and that the residuary clause is…