Nason v. Thatcher
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
This was an appeal from a decree of the court below, proving, approving, and allowing the last will and testament of Peter Thatcher, Esq., late of Gorham, in this county, counsellor at law. The appeal was claimed in behalf of the heir at law. The sanity of the testator being the question, an issue was formed and tried by a jury. The executors offered two members of the Maine Missionary society to be sworn as witnesses.
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This was an appeal from a decree of the court below, proving, approving, and allowing the last will and testament of Peter Thatcher, Esq., late of Gorham, in this county, counsellor at law. The appeal was claimed in behalf of the heir at law. The sanity of the testator being the question, an issue was formed and tried by a jury. The executors offered two members of the Maine Missionary society to be sworn as witnesses. They were objected to on the part of the appellant, because the testator had, by the instrument in question, after sundry legacies, devised the residue of his estate to the…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
If this society were a party to the suit, its members could not be admitted as witnesses. But as they are mere trustees, and we cannot presume that they will abuse the trust reposed in them by the testator, their interest is too minute to admit of the supposition that it will influence them in their testimony. Let them be sworn.
A verdict being rendered in favor of the sanity of the testator, the decree of the court below was affirmed, and the cause remitted for further proceedings.
2Cited by11 opinions
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