Boyer v. Frick
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to the Common Pleas of Bucks county. This was an issue directed in the court below, to try the validity of a paper, purporting to be the last will and testament (nuncupative) of Gertrude Frick, deceased, in which George, Henry, Gertrude and Maria Frick were made plaintiffs, and Jacob, Eve and Maria Boyer, John Waltman and Magdalena Lessig, defendants. The plaintiffs were children of testatrix’s husband by a former wife, a sister of the testatrix.
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ERROR to the Common Pleas of Bucks county. This was an issue directed in the court below, to try the validity of a paper, purporting to be the last will and testament (nuncupative) of Gertrude Frick, deceased, in which George, Henry, Gertrude and Maria Frick were made plaintiffs, and Jacob, Eve and Maria Boyer, John Waltman and Magdalena Lessig, defendants. The plaintiffs were children of testatrix’s husband by a former wife, a sister of the testatrix. The Boyers were children of another sister. The plaintiffs proved that the testatrix was taken sick from a rupture, on Monday, 23d of May…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
— Nuncupation is not a matter of right, but of special indulgence, as a last resource. It is an exception to the rule of the statute, which has no foundation but necessity, and which, as it affords great temptation to the perjury and fraud which it was the aim of the leading provisions to prevent, cannot be resorted to as a measure of mere convenience. It is true that the statute, speaking in general terms, allows it in the last sickness, without specifying the degree of its urgency; but from the clause which requires the act to be done “…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- In re the alleged nuncupative will of YarnallSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1833
- Stricker v. GrovesSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1840
3Cited by7 opinions
- Baird v. BairdSupreme Court of Kansas · 1905
- Werkheiser v. WerkheiserSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1843
- Scaife v. EmmonsSupreme Court of Georgia · 1890
- McClellan's EstateSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1936
- Mellor v. SmythSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1908
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