Newhouse v. Godwin
New York Supreme Court
This was an appeal from a decree of the surrogate of the county of Kings, refusing probate of the’will of William A. God-win, deceased. The testator was a colored man, residing in Brooklyn many years, and died there, on the 6th of December, 1851, after an illness of two or three months.
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This was an appeal from a decree of the surrogate of the county of Kings, refusing probate of the’will of William A. God-win, deceased. The testator was a colored man, residing in Brooklyn many years, and died there, on the 6th of December, 1851, after an illness of two or three months. The instrument propounded as his will bore “date the 18th day of November, 1851. The will was offered for probate before the surrogate of Kings county, by John Newhouse, the appellant, in behalf of himself and the other executors named in the will. The respondent, Mary Godwin, (now Mary Galfe, she having…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court, S. B. Strong, J.
I am inclined to think that the requisite formalities to sustain the execution of the paper propounded as the will of the deceased, were sufficiently proved. Frazee, one of the subscribing witnesses, swears positively that they were adopted. Morris, the other subscribing witness, does not recollect hearing the testator declare that the paper to which he had made his mark was his last will and testament, or request any one to sign his name as a witness. But the non-recollection of this witness cannot overthrow, or balance, the affirmative and positive evidence of…
2Cited by27 opinions
- Delafield v. . ParishNew York Court of Appeals · 1862
- Underwood v. . CurtisNew York Court of Appeals · 1891
- Fischer v. SperlSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1905
- Will of SlingerWisconsin Supreme Court · 1888
- Disch v. TimmWisconsin Supreme Court · 1898
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