In re the Accounting of Franklin National Bank

In this proceeding, brought to settle their accounts, the successor trustees under the will of Dudley G. Gautier requested and obtained a construction of the will. The controversy revolves about the term “ surviving ” as used in paragraph Ninth, subdivision (b), and calls upon us to say whether the essential survivorship refers to survival merely to the death of the testator, as the courts below held, or, as the two dissenting Appellate Division justices concluded, to the death of the life beneficiary.

Paragraph Ninth of the will disposes of the testator’s entire residuary estate. By…