Pettengill v. Abbott
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Tort, by the administrator of the estate of Lyman A. Abbott, to recover of the defendants certain property of Abbott alleged to have been wrongfully converted by them.
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Tort, by the administrator of the estate of Lyman A. Abbott, to recover of the defendants certain property of Abbott alleged to have been wrongfully converted by them. At the trial in the Superior Court, before Braley, J., it appeared that shortly after the death of Lyman A. Abbott, which occurred on May 26, 1893, his widow, Elizabeth Abbott, from whom he had been living separate and apart, took from his body the sum of $500, and subsequently spent $193 of this amount for funeral expenses and the expenses of his last sickness, and $307 in the purchase of a burial lot in a cemetery; that the…
1Opinion of the CourtAllen, J.
The plaintiff contends that the widow’s expenditure for the burial lot and its perpetual care was not, in a proper construction of the statutes, reasonable, proper, or necessary ; and that this is a question of law.
The deceased, we infer, died intestate; and the widow was entitled by preference to administration. Pub. Sts. c. 130, § 1. She was therefore a proper person to intermeddle with his estate, and to attend to such things as must be done before letters of administration could be taken out. Perkins v. Ladd, 114 Mass. 420. Providing a suitable place of burial was a matter of this sort;…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Sweeney v. MuldoonMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1885
- Perkins v. LaddMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1874
3Cited by8 opinions
- Joseph S. Waterman & Sons, Inc. v. HookMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1923
- Rice v. New York Central & Hudson River RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1907
- Commonwealth v. OrlerMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1925
- Illinois Public Aid Commission v. MassieIllinois Supreme Court · 1958
- Marple v. MorseMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1902
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