Board of Trustees v. Farrow

The county court considered the will ambiguous and therefore took testimony of Mr. Farrow in an attempt to determine the dominant purpose of Earl E. Berry. It then proceeded to apply the doctrine of cy pres to carry out what it considered to be the testator’s intent.

It is, however, error to construe a will to find an unexpressed intent of the testator when the terms of the will are unambiguous on their face and clearly express the testator’s purpose. This court has stated the rule in Will of Moran (1903), 118 Wis. 177, 196, 96 N. W. 367:

“Many . . . rules might be referred to, to which we…