Absolute bequest with a right of alienation defeats later limitation over and leaves post-death succession to statute.

A testamentary grant conferring the property on the widow together with a right of transfer was treated as an absolute estate. The later clause directing devolution after her death was repugnant to that absolute grant and could not create a valid successive bequest in favour of the daughters' sons. Because the widow took full ownership, succession after her death was governed by the applicable statutory scheme, not by the void limitation over in the will. The legal result was that the absolute bequest stood, the later restriction failed, and the statutory line of succession operated on the widow's estate.

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Issues: (i) whether the will conferred an absolute estate or only a restricted right on the widow; (ii) whether the subsequent bequest in favour of the daughters' sons was valid if the widow took an absolute estate; (iii) whether succession after the widow's death was governed by the will or by the statutory scheme.

Issue (i): whether the will conferred an absolute estate or only a restricted right on the widow.

Analysis: The will had to be read as a whole, but the clause giving the widow entitlement to the entire property with the right of transfer was decisive. A devise coupled with a right of alienation indicates an absolute estate. The later clause purporting to direct devolution after the widow's death could not dilute the prior grant.

Conclusion: The widow took an absolute estate, not a restricted estate.

Issue (ii): whether the subsequent bequest in favour of the daughters' sons was valid if the widow took an absolute estate.

Analysis: Where an earlier clause creates an absolute title, later directions inconsistent with that title are repugnant and cannot stand. The testator cannot create successive legatees in respect of the same absolute bequest.

Conclusion: The subsequent bequest in favour of the daughters' sons was invalid.

Issue (iii): whether succession after the widow's death was governed by the will or by the statutory scheme.

Analysis: Since the widow acquired the property as legatee with absolute rights, the post-death succession to the holding had to be determined by the statutory rules applicable to her estate, not by the void successive bequest in the will. The statutory line of succession therefore operated after her death.

Conclusion: Succession after the widow's death was governed by the statute, and not by the invalid later bequest.

Final Conclusion: The will vested absolute ownership in the widow, the later limitation over failed, and the statutory succession followed after her death. The appellants succeeded and the decree in favour of the respondents could not stand.

Ratio Decidendi: A testamentary grant of property with a right of alienation creates an absolute estate, and any later clause attempting to divert the same property on the first devisee's death is repugnant and void.

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