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to court to enforce the equitable lien on the stock. The record
is replete with compelling evidence that decedent conducted
business only on her own terms. Simply put, business
arrangements were done her way or not at all. Decedent would not
have wanted her daughter to keep the stock if she did not follow
her wishes.
Having eliminated the creation of a charge or an option to
purchase, we are left with a condition, precedent or subsequent,
as best reflecting the probable intent of decedent. This
interpretation is consistent with petitioner's argument and
respondent's alternative argument on brief that decedent wanted
the bequest of stock to be subject to a condition.
We believe the best indication of decedent's intent can be
derived from how she handled an earlier transaction with her
daughter, her sale of 25 percent of the agency stock to her
daughter. The agreement, like the will, called for 10 years of
monthly payments. The stock was issued in Patricia Low's name as
of the effective date of the agreement, January 1, 1990.
Although Patricia Low became the owner of 25 percent of the
agency stock on January 1, 1990, physical possession of the stock
certificate was to be withheld, by her mother's instruction,
until all the payments had been made. When a single payment was
made late, decedent threatened to tear up her daughter's stock
certificate.
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