Thompson v. Ward

VAUGHN, Judge.

The search for testamentary intent is the primary task in the interpretation of this or any other will. We must look at the language employed by the testatrix in the light of the circumstances known to her when she drafted her will. Other “rules of construction” so often recited by the courts are, in many cases, merely labels that are placed on the court’s conclusions in order to buttress the result reached.

Emma Ward’s husband and her son were both lawyers. Even so, she would probably agree that only lawyers would argue that there could be any doubt as to what she meant when she…