Durfee v. MacNeil
Ohio Supreme Court
Error to the Circuit Court of Marion county. The original cause was taken by appeal from the common pleas to the circuit court where it was heard and determined on the pleadings and the evidence.
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Error to the Circuit Court of Marion county. The original cause was taken by appeal from the common pleas to the circuit court where it was heard and determined on the pleadings and the evidence. MacNeil sued as the executor of the will of his deceased wife, Alice Durfee MacNeil, alleging in substance that the defendant, Elisha Brightman Durfee, was her older brother in whom she had always reposed entire confidence; that during her absence for a number of years in New England and Europe she had entrusted him with the entire management of her estate which consisted chiefly of lands in Ohio and…
1Opinion of the CourtShauck, J.
It is entirely clear that by the terms of the will of Bradford R. Durfee, each of his children took an estate in fee simple in the lands devised, determinable, however, upon the contingency of death “without heirs capable of inheriting;” the estate, upon that contingency, to pass to the survivor by way of executory devise. Did this contingency occur as to Mrs. MacNeil; or is her surviving husband her heir within the meaning of the testator?
Under our present statute of descents and distribution the lands of a married woman who dies in testate and leaving no children or their representatives…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Semmig v. MerrihewSupreme Court of Vermont · 1894