Historic Wills: The Great Stork Derby
For our inaugural foray into interesting famous wills (celebrity or historical)*, I offer you: The Great Stork Derby of 1926 to 1936. During the Great Stork Derby, Toronto mothers competed to see who could produce the largest number of babies in a ten year period—in order to win a large inheritance from an eccentric millionaire.
Charles Vance Millar, a Toronto lawyer and businessman, died of a stroke in his law office on October 31, 1926. He had no spouse, no descendants, no siblings, and predeceased parents. During Millar’s lifetime, he accrued significant wealth. At the time that his will was filed for probate, the estate’s net worth was estimated to be $322,309.00 (Canadian dollars), worth approximately 5.8 million US dollars today.**
Most importantly, Millar loved a practical joke. The first paragraph to his will includes the following note: “This Will is necessarily uncommon and capricious because I have no dependents or near relations and no duty rests upon me to leave any property at my death and what I do leave is proof of my folly in gathering and retaining more than I required in my lifetime.”
Millar was prepared to have the last laugh. His unusual bequests included:
- At the death of another person, Millar gave the Head Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church of Toronto a sum of $500 for masses for the soul of that person, “as he will be greatly in need of help at that time.”
- To each protestant minister in Toronto and to each Orange Lodge in Toronto, Millar gave one share of a Roman Catholic-controlled brewery.
- To three men known to despise each other, Millar gave a joint life tenancy in a home in Jamaica.
However, the real story comes with the residue of the Will. Anything left in the estate (after the initial bequests were made) was directed to be held and invested for a period of ten years. After ten years’ time, that sum would be given to “the Mother who has since my death given birth in Toronto to the greatest number of children”; if there was a tie, the sum would be divided between the mothers.
Pandemonium ensued. Lawsuits! Distant relatives! Government intervention! Pregnancies! Babies!
In addition to the usual sorts of lawsuits, like “distant relatives sue to overthrow will so they can inherit instead”—the Ontario government tried to have the will overturned so the money could be given to the University of Toronto (this claim was withdrawn). While these lawsuits were ongoing and waiting for their day in Court, Toronto women kept having babies. And more babies.
In the end: the bequest in the will was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada. During the 10 year waiting period, the value of the estate was greatly increased by long-term investments. Finally, the time had to come to declare a winner of this now very-large fortune, estimated to be worth between 9 and 10 million dollars in US dollars today.
32 lawyers attended the initial hearing to claim a share on behalf of their clients, although that group was eventually winnowed down to a few families. Judge William Middleton eventually ruled in favor of four mothers who each had nine children. Each of the mothers received $110,000.00 (Canadian dollars), worth approximately 2.33 million US dollars today.
Two disqualified candidates received $12,500 (Canadian dollars) out of court (approximately $275,000 in US dollars today). One was disqualified due to the illegitimacy of the birth of the children (although: she had more children!). An important qualifying note on this result: if the judge had ruled to allow illegitimate children (born to the same Toronto mother) or to allow stillborn children, then the Derby would have yielded a different result.
In this case, Charles Vance Millar’s final wishes were upheld by the Court and carried out. His assets were distributed accordingly, even after several legal challenges and the personal struggles of many. Mr. Millar succeeded in writing himself a will unlike any other, both “uncommon and capricious”.
If you are interested in making an update to your Will or Trust, please let us know! Of course, if your intended change includes a wager or challenge to beneficiaries, then we will have a robust conversation about the pros and cons of probate litigation to uphold your intended wishes.
*Citations omitted. Please note that I am not a historian or a journalist. While I have done my best to verify the facts and information presented, please note that the information gathered to tell this story is typically obtained from secondary sources without a trained historian’s review or a news journalist’s source vetting. Please enjoy with that spirit in mind.
**Please note that for conversions from the time of the story to today’s US dollars, there must be both a conversion from Canadian to US Dollars, and an inflation adjustment; depending on when the conversion occurs and which nation’s inflation is taken into consideration (plus the extreme situation of the Great Depression occurring during the 10 year period)—these numbers have some significant variation, and the final numbers are less precise that I would wish.
Image source: Will of Charles Vance Millar, 1926. York County Surrogate Court Estate Files. Reference Code: RG 22-305, file 55697. Archives of Ontario.
Accessed via https://web.archive.org/web/20100210060355/http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/about/archives-one/big/big_01_will.aspx.
