Melnick v. Westmoreland County Volunteer Rescue Squad

By JUDGE JOSEPH E. SPRUILL, JR.

This is a suit brought by the executor of the Estate of Martha V. Sanford to construe her will. Miss Sanford died in January, 1990. By her will, dated December 12, 1977, she devised her residuary estate "to the Rescue Squad ~ Hague, Westmoreland County, Va."

There was not then, nor is there now, an official entity so named. There was then, and is now, the Westmoreland County Volunteer Rescue Squad (Westmoreland) based in the village of Mt. Holly, approximately five miles west of Hague.

Westmoreland claims it is entitled to the entire residuary estate because from…