Fox v. Evans
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
This was a feigned issue from the register’s court, to try the validity of the last will of Mary Evans. The will was subscribed by three witnesses, and two of them duly proved its execution, and the sanity of the testatrix.
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This was a feigned issue from the register’s court, to try the validity of the last will of Mary Evans. The will was subscribed by three witnesses, and two of them duly proved its execution, and the sanity of the testatrix. The third witness, William Spence, had left the state and removed to Virginia. offered a witness, to prove the declarations of this Spence, that the testatrix was absolutely childish when she made her will, her mental faculties being quite destroyed by old age. His signature adds validity to the instrument, and therefore what he has been heard to say shall be received in…
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court.
The evidence might be offered with a much better prospect of success, if this was a bill brought to establish a will of lands in England, where three witnesses are necessary by the statute of frauds and perjuries. There the rule is, that all the witnesses, if living, must be examined. 1 Vez. 177. 1 Wils. 216. Where one of the witnesses has gone beyond sea, a commission issues to examine him, and the same credit is not given to his hand writing as if dead. 3 Vez. 460. Where the witnesses are dead, their-hands may be proved. Bull. 265. In one case indeed, Clymer’s lessee v. Littler…
2Cited by2 opinions
- Abraham v. WilkinsSupreme Court of Arkansas · 1856
- Townshend v. TownshendCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1851