Shattuck v. Stedman
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This case came before the Court upon an agreed statement of facts. On- the 3d of January 1797, James Richardson, the defendants’ testator, made his last will, containing this provision : “ I give and bequeath to Mary Childs, my niece &c., the interest of 1000 dollars to be paid her annually during her life &c., without any intermeddling of her said husband therewith &c., and at her decease I give and bequeath the said principal sum to be equally divided among her children…
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This case came before the Court upon an agreed statement of facts. On- the 3d of January 1797, James Richardson, the defendants’ testator, made his last will, containing this provision : “ I give and bequeath to Mary Childs, my niece &c., the interest of 1000 dollars to be paid her annually during her life &c., without any intermeddling of her said husband therewith &c., and at her decease I give and bequeath the said principal sum to be equally divided among her children and payable to them at the respective ages of twenty-one years with interest.” The testator died in 1799, and Mary Childs…
1Opinion of the Court
Parker C. J.
The question which arises on the state of facts presented to us is, whether this bequest of 1000 dollars vested in the children of Mary Childs on the death of the testator, so as to pass upon his death to the administrator of John Childs, one of the children who survived the testator but died before his mother, or whether it was contingent upon his surviving his mother, to whom the income of the sum was given by the will during her life.
Perhaps no question can arise in the course of legal inquiries more doubtful in its nature, or less referable to fixed and certain rules and…
2Cases cited3 opinions
- Scott v. PriceSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1815
- Stone v. MasseySupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1798
- Patterson v. HawthornSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1824
3Cited by1 opinion
- Blue Ridge Bank and Trust Co. v. McFallMissouri Court of Appeals · 2006