Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention v. Gaines

WYCHE, District Judge.

Plaintiff brings this action under the Declaratory Judgments Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 400, for the construction of Item 5 of the will of Bettie Clements Wray, late of Columbia, South Carolina, which item reads as follows: “Item 5. If the sum total of the amount received from the sale of all my property as mentioned above, is more than the total of the amounts I have given, as designated above, then I direct that all of the remaining amount be sent direct to the Baptist Hospitals in China; not through the Foreign Mission Board.”

The will was executed on Deeember 18, 1928. Mrs.…