Spence v. Spence
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
WRIT of error to the common pleas of Lancaster county. Rosanna Spence against Jacob Spence and others. Issue of devisavit vel non on a writing purporting to be the will of John Spence deceased. One of the subscribing witnesses to the will having been examined, detailed the circumstances under which the will had been altered by him at the instance of the testator, after it had been written, and its execution.
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WRIT of error to the common pleas of Lancaster county. Rosanna Spence against Jacob Spence and others. Issue of devisavit vel non on a writing purporting to be the will of John Spence deceased. One of the subscribing witnesses to the will having been examined, detailed the circumstances under which the will had been altered by him at the instance of the testator, after it had been written, and its execution. The defendant proposed to prove that the testator had a dislike to the said witness. The evidence was objected to and rejected. The defendant also proposed to ask another subscribing…
1Opinion of the Court
■ The opinion of,the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
—The first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh exceptions are to the rejection of evidence to show that the testator disliked one of the subscribing witnesses. The relevancy of the fact, is not perceived. The witness had pretended tono intimacy with the testator; but had testified that, happening to be on the spot, he was requested by him, in the urgency of his approaching dissolution, to correct certain blunders of the scrivener in respect to names; and that his corrections were supervised by the testator, who re-examined the paper…
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