Murphy v. Lawrence
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Contract, against the executors of the will of Samuel C. Lawrence, late of Medford, for a legacy which the plaintiff alleged was given to him by the provision of the will of the defendants’ testator quoted in the opinion. Writ dated October 10, 1913. The case was heard by Hardy, J., without a jury. The entire will, with codicils, covered about forty-eight typewritten pages. Material portions of it are described in the opinion.
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Contract, against the executors of the will of Samuel C. Lawrence, late of Medford, for a legacy which the plaintiff alleged was given to him by the provision of the will of the defendants’ testator quoted in the opinion. Writ dated October 10, 1913. The case was heard by Hardy, J., without a jury. The entire will, with codicils, covered about forty-eight typewritten pages. Material portions of it are described in the opinion. Such of the judge’s findings of fact as are material also are stated in the opinion. The judge refused to rule that the plaintiff was one of the testator’s “domestic…
1Opinion of the CourtHammond, J.
The thirty-seventh article of the will is as follows: “I also give five thousand dollars to each of my domestic servants, other than those named in the two preceding Articles, who shall be in my service at my decease and who shall have been in such service for the five years immediately preceding my death.” The question is, was the plaintiff a “domestic servant” within the meaning of that term as thus used by the testator?
It is well to examine the whole will, especially the clauses preceding the clause in question, to see the path travelled by the mind of the testator on the way to this…
2Cited by6 opinions
- Raines v. . OsborneSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1922
- Catto v. PlantSupreme Court of Connecticut · 1927
- Second Bank-State Street Trust Co. v. PinionMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1960
- Wiseman v. PhippsNew York Supreme Court · 1940
- In Re SavinNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division · 1942
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