Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ There remains the question whether children of Barbara King are entitled to share with Catharine, as held by the supreme court. The court of appeals was of opinion that the interest of Barbara King was contingent upon her surviving the grantor, and that as she died before him, her children could not take, the word 'children' obviously being used in its proper sense, and not embracing issue of such children, mentioned antithetically in the same sentence. ”

“ If George had died after his father, instead of before, the gift over still would have taken effect. Surviving children, then, means those of the three children who survive the child who dies without issue. The death of the child determines who shall take as surviving children. It is true that if that death happens before the grantor's, the distribution is postponed, but that obviously is inserted to exclude any implication that in that event the grantor gives up the life estate that he has reserved throughout. ”

“ Catharine, George & Barbara, without leaving any child or children, or any issue of any child or children, then and in that case that the property held in trust by said trustee party of the second part for the benefit of the party then dying without issue shall be sold by said party of the second part, after the death of John Walter, Senior, and the proceeds paid over in equal portions to the surviving children of the said John Walter, Senior.' John Walter, Senior, died on April 12, 1907. ”