Reese v. Hawthorn
Supreme Court of Virginia
At the December term 1850 of the County court of Lunenburg, a paper was propounded for probat as containing the nuncupative will of Susanna Reese deceased, by John B. Hawthorn, acting for himself and as the next friend of the other legatees named in the paper. The probat of the paper was contested by the next of kin of Susanna Reese.
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At the December term 1850 of the County court of Lunenburg, a paper was propounded for probat as containing the nuncupative will of Susanna Reese deceased, by John B. Hawthorn, acting for himself and as the next friend of the other legatees named in the paper. The probat of the paper was contested by the next of kin of Susanna Reese. It appears from the evidence that three or four days before the death of Susanna Reese, she being then very ill and given over by her physician, the paper was prepared at her request, and was read to her in the presence of the four witnesses who attested it, and…
1Opinion of the CourtDaniel, J.
This is an effort to set up, as a nuncupative will, an instrument which was executed by a testatrix in her last sickness, as a written will, with all the ceremonies requisite to the validity of a written .will, with the exception that the attestation of the witnesses was made not in the presence of the testatrix.
Everything has been done as well by the testatrix as by the witnesses, which either she or they supposed it necessary for her or them to do, in order legally to declare and certify her testamentary purposes in the form of a written will.
The defect in the instrument designed to be…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Boyer v. FrickSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1842
- Phœbe v. BoggessSupreme Court of Virginia · 1844