Irving Trust Co. v. Day

The federal question presented upon this appeal is whether § 18 of the New York Decedent Estate Law works an impairment of the obligation of contract, forbidden by Article I, § 10 of the Constitution, or a deprivation of property without due process, forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment.

The instrument which appellants claim embodies a contract which has been impaired, and under which they claim property rights, reads as follows:

“I, Helena Day Snyder, being of sound mind and in possession of all my faculties, on the eve of my marriage to John J. McGlone, in London, England, on February 4th,…