Matter of Estate of Holmes

This is an appeal from a District Court order finding that the will of Charles Livingstone Holmes provided for a charitable bequest within the purview of Montana’s Mortmain Statute and therefore was valid only as to one-third of decedent’s estate and that the remaining two-thirds of the estate should pass to the heirs of the decedent by operation of law. The beneficiary of the charitable bequest negated by the order, the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children, appeals.

On January 5, 1978, just 12 days prior to his death, Charles Holmes executed a last will in which he devised all his property…