After leaving the passengers at the lawyer’s office, Jordy took the mules and buggy to the freight company stable and asked one of the stable hands to see to the critters. He did not have a notion how long the lawyer’s meeting might take. When he returned to the lawyer’s office he was shown into a room with a long table where Frank Bell Russo and the others, including Tige and Juana Marshall now sat.
Russo stood and shook Jordy’s hand. “Sit down, Jordy.” He gestured to the only vacant seat, which happened to be at the end of the table opposite the presiding lawyer. Tige Marshall sat to his right and Sierra to his left. “We have all had a chance to meet each other while we waited for you—and you are precisely on time, as Jack would have noted. Just to give you a bit of background, Jack came to my office the day before he left on the recent search for the stolen horses. He did not appear to have any sense of foreboding. It was just his nature to prepare, and there had been recent developments in his life that made it important to him to update his arrangements. He expected that passage of time would prompt further changes in disposition of his property, but fate intervened, and the will that I am going to review with you today will govern.”
The lawyer pulled several sheets of parchment from the envelope and laid them on the tabletop in front of him.
He said, “Jack Wills was not a simple man, but he treasured simplicity in expression. I hope you will excuse my vulgarity, but he told me to ‘spare him the legal crap.’ Thus, I have never previously drafted a will that disposed of so much property in so few words. Now, I shall read: Will of John Thomas Wills. I revoke any prior wills. I give my property as follows: One: I direct my executor to incorporate the business known as Lucky Five Freighting Company, including all real and personal property assets utilized in the business, and thereafter to distribute the shares of said company as follows: Sixty percent to Tige Marshall and Juana Marshall jointly, ten percent to Theresa Wyman, ten percent to Rudolph Kilgore, ten percent to Jordan Jackson and ten percent to Sierra Wills.”
Russo paused. “Tige and Juana, as executor of the will, I will work with you in setting up the new legal structure for the business. However, you should be aware that since you will own the majority shares, you effectively control the business operation, subject to paying out a percentage of profits to all the shareholders. It is not as complicated as it sounds, and Jack assured me that Juana could easily take care of the bookkeeping.”
Tige said, “I don’t understand. He was more than our employer, and he gave us so many opportunities anyway.”
Russo said, “I remember the day he signed the will, Jack said that he never did that much for people by way of money, but he tried to give them chances to do for themselves. I think he thought you had already proved you would take advantage of opportunities, so he wanted to give you a big one.”
Jordy noted that the lawyer seemed uncomfortable with Juana’s tears and quickly turned his eyes to the parchment sheet in front of him.
Russo continued. “Two: I give to Jordan Jackson all the cattle, horses, crop inventories, equipment and other personal property used in the Lucky Five Ranch operation. Three: I give to Theresa Wyman twelve hundred acres of land adjacent to or surrounding her real estate parcel, the dimensions and approximate boundaries to be determined by her and exact property lines to be established by legal survey.”
Russo paused again. “Tess, Jack’s intention was that you could choose to either sell the land or lease it back to the Lucky Five Ranch. But no strings.”
Tess said nothing, shaking her head in disbelief.
The lawyer continued reading. “Four: I give any remaining real estate, being that property known as Lucky Five Ranch as follows: To Jordan Jackson, an undivided three-fourths and to Sierra Wills, an undivided one fourth, both devisees subject to the right of Rudolph Kilgore to live in his current residence on the land for his lifetime.”
He looked at Jordy and Sierra. “I was not enthusiastic about this provision, but I am only the scrivener of my client’s wishes. This means that neither of you can identify specific acres that he or she owns. If Jordy continues the ranch operation, you would need to agree to a rent share for Sierra’s one-fourth interest in the land or agree to a price for purchase by Jordy of that interest. The owner of an undivided interest can also force a sale of the entire property if the owners do not come to terms. The best I can say for undivided interests is that they tend to generate a lot of fees for lawyers.” He gave a wry smile.
Jordy said, “Jack owed me nothing. I am grateful for anything. But I think he was tossing me a challenge.” Jordy looked at Sierra. Her sober face told him nothing.
“Five,” Russo said. “I direct my executor to pay to all persons employed by either Lucky Five Ranch or Lucky Five Freighting at the date of my death the sum of two hundred dollars for each year of service completed prior to that date.”
He turned to Juana. “Jack said you would have records to verify time of service. He thought approximately twenty thousand dollars would cover this.”
She smiled, “Jack had ledgers in his head. If that is what he said, it won’t be far off.”
“Finally,” Russo said, “Six: I give the residue and remainder of my property to Theresa Wyman, Rudolph Kilgore, Jordan Jackson and Sierra Wills, in equal shares.”
The lawyer raised his head from the papers. “This is called a residuary clause. It takes care of anything not
