Case of Todd's Will
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
APPEAL from the Register’s Court of Westmoreland county, which sustained the caveat, and rejected the paper offered as the last will and testament of George Todd deceased, which was as follows: “ Stewartsville, 25th of May 1840. “ To Benjamin Byerly, Esq.
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APPEAL from the Register’s Court of Westmoreland county, which sustained the caveat, and rejected the paper offered as the last will and testament of George Todd deceased, which was as follows: “ Stewartsville, 25th of May 1840. “ To Benjamin Byerly, Esq. “ My wish, desire, and intention, now is, that if I should not return, (which I will, no preventing Providence,) what I own shall be divided as follows: $100 to my father, together with my bookcase and one silver watch with the initials of my name on it, if I own it; if not, the best that I own, if I have any. My mother gets my horse,…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
No text-writer seems to have distinguished between a condition attached to a particular testamentary disposition, and a condition attached to the operation of the instrument. But in Parsons v. Lanoe, (1 Vez. Sr. 191), Lord Hardwicke said without hesitation that he would not require an authority for such a distinction, and that a paper subject to a condition ought not to be admitted to probate after failure of the contingency on the happening of which it was to have taken effect. Why should it be proved as a will, when it could not have the…
2Cited by15 opinions
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