Mow v. Baker
68 A.L.R. 405, 24 S. W.2d 1 (1930)
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Rule of Law:
A parent's contractual release of their expectancy interest in an ancestor's estate is not binding on their children if the parent predeceases the ancestor. Grandchildren inherit directly from the grandparent by substitution, not through their parent, and are therefore not bound by contracts to which they were not a party.
Facts:
- W.B. Baker was married twice, having five children with his first wife and three with his second wife, Sallie Baker.
- In 1907, W.B. Baker and his second wife entered into a written contract with the five children from his first marriage.
- Under the contract, each of the five children received $1,000 in exchange for releasing all claims to their deceased mother's estate.
- The contract also stated that the children accepted the payment as an 'advancement' in settlement of any future interest they might have in W.B. Baker's estate upon his death.
- After the contract was signed, one of the signatories, Emma Stovall (a daughter from the first marriage), died.
- Sometime after Emma Stovall's death, her father, W.B. Baker, died intestate (without a will).
- Emma Stovall was survived by four children, who are W.B. Baker's grandchildren.
Procedural Posture:
- Mary Mow et al. (children and grandchildren of W.B. Baker) sued Sallie Baker et al. in the district court of Coleman County, Texas, to establish an interest in and partition W.B. Baker's estate.
- The district court (trial court) entered a judgment for the defendants, denying the plaintiffs any share of the estate.
- The plaintiffs appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals for the Third District.
- The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment of the district court.
- The Supreme Court of Texas granted a writ of error on the application of the plaintiffs, Mary Mow et al., to review the case.
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Issue:
Does a parent's contractual release of their expectancy interest in their father's estate bar their own children (the grandchildren) from inheriting from the grandfather's estate when the parent dies before the grandfather?
Opinions:
Majority - Critz, J.
No. A parent's contractual release of their expectancy interest in an estate does not prevent their children from inheriting directly from the ancestor if the parent dies before the ancestor. The court reasoned that under Texas statutes of descent and distribution, an estate vests immediately in the heirs at law upon the decedent's death. Because Emma Stovall predeceased her father, W.B. Baker, she never became his heir and her expectancy interest never vested. Instead, upon W.B. Baker's death, her children became his direct heirs by substitution, inheriting in their own right. Citing Powers v. Morrison, the court held that the statutory language stating descendants inherit the portion 'the parent through whom they inherit would be entitled to if alive' merely defines whether heirs take per capita or per stirpes, and does not subject the descendants' inheritance to the parent's prior debts or contracts. Therefore, Emma Stovall could not contractually release an inheritance right that the law vested directly in her children, to which they were not parties.
Analysis:
This decision solidifies the legal principle that inheritance by representation (per stirpes) creates a direct heirship in the descendant, independent of the predeceased parent. It clarifies that a release of an expectancy interest is a personal contract that cannot bind third parties, such as the releasing party's children, who acquire their own inheritance rights directly by statute. The ruling significantly impacts estate planning and settlement agreements, establishing that a release from one generation does not automatically extinguish the inheritance rights of the next generation if the first predeceases the ancestor. This protects grandchildren's statutory inheritance rights from being contracted away by a parent whose own interest never vested.
