A Manual of the Law of Wills: As Determined by the Leading Courts of England and the United States

Charles Fisk Beach (Jr.)

Bancroft-Whitney, 1888 - Wills - 605 pages

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Table of Contents

Index

Accuracy in the use of these terms not required 3 Classification	2

Nuncupative wills Should be oral	4

Who may make a nuncupative will	5

a Soldiers in actual service	6

b Mariners at	7

111	8

c Persons in extremis	10

Testamentary intention in nuncupative wills	11

Dying without issue construed	369

Dying without issue referred to the life of the testator	372

In default of issue construed	373

Statutory construction of words importing a failure of issue 199 Words which would create an estate tail in realty confer the absolute interest in perso...	375

American statutes concerning estates in tail	376

CHAPTER XVI	380

BEACH WILLS	385

CHAPTER XVII	394

What may pass by a nuncupative will	12

The words must be committed to writing	12

Number of witnesses to nuncupative wills 13 Wills at sea and in the field under the Louisiana Code	13

Statutes concerning nuncupative wills strictly construed	14

Mystic testaments	15

Holographic wills	16

CHAPTER II	20

Definitions etc The terms will and testa	21

? 114	36

CHAPTER III	39

? 85	44

86	48

Of acknowledgment in general	52

Of acknowledgment of the will	53

Of acknowledgment of the signature	55

Publication as distinguished from acknowledgment	60

What constitutes the presence of witnesses 38 Of the simultaneous presence of witnesses	63

Of attestation in general	65

Attestation under the Louisiana Code	69

Of signing by the witnesses	70

Whether the witness name may be signed by another	72

Whether the witness may acknowledge a signature previously made	73

Of the position of the signatures of the witnesses	75

Of the number of witnesses 46 Of the request to subscribe	79

Of the presence of the testator	80

Of the presence of a blind testator 49 Of the attestation of witnesses in the presence of each other	83

CHAPTER IV	87

Revocation under the Louisiana Code	139

CHAPTER V	140

CHAPTER VI	148

CHAPTER VII	158

CHAPTER VIII	166

Of the admissibility of evidence	188

Of the admissibility of the opinion of witnesses	191

ment are in general used without distinction to	193

CHAPTER IX	194

CHAPTER X	217

CHAPTER XI	235

Of the rights of children not mentioned in the will	237

Of the rights of afterborn and posthumous children 133 Of the statutes of mortmain	240

Of the rule against perpetuities	242

Of the rule against accumulations	244

Exceptions in favor of charitable uses	247

Of the doctrine of cy pres	250

Examples of uses held to be charitable	256

Examples of uses held not to be charitable	261

CHAPTER XII	263

CHAPTER XIII	288

Presumption as to the testators intention	292

When a widow will be put to her election	293

Of the manner in which election is made	296

The choice must be intelligently made	298

Of the widows rights after election	299

LAPSED LEGACIES	300

CHAPTER XIV	302

Decisions under the modern statutes	314

To whom the benefit of lapsed legacies and devises accrues 168 To whom the benefit of void legacies and devises accrues	319

To whom the benefit of lapsed charges accrues	322

Of the vesting of title	323

The same subject continued	324

Of the enjoyment of possession	326

Devises held to vest notwithstanding apparent contingency	329

The same subject continued	331

The effect of an intermediate gift	333

The effect of a gift over	334

The effect of the word payable	335

The effect of a bequest of intermediate income	337

The rule where possession is postponed for the convenience of the estate	340

Estates contingent upon survival	342

Dying without issue construed	344

How far a contingency may extend	346

The testators manifest intention prevails	347

Of limitations upon personal estate	349

Of reopening and divesting	350

Of words sensible with reference to extraneous circumstances	351

CHAPTER XV	352

Estates in tail Issue as a word of limitation or purchase	363

The same subject continued	365

Children and sons as words of limitation or purchase 194 Child son and daughter as nomina collectiva	366

Joint estates severed by death in other States	395

Exceptions to the statutes	396

CHAPTER XVIII	397

Words assigning a reason do not raise a trust	403

The doctrine applied with caution in modern times	404

CHAPTER XIX	406

The distinction between a condition and a limitation	411

Of the time within which conditions must be performed 226 Of illegal and impossible conditions precedent	414

Of illegal and impossible conditions subsequent	415

Of conditions repugnant to the estate	416

Restraints upon alienation	417

The same subject continued	418

Conditions excluding rights of creditors	419

Conditions in restraint of marriage	423

Conditions in restraint of second marriage	424

Marriage without consent of guardian or trustee	425

The effect of a gift over upon marriage 237 Uncertainty of the rule against conditions in restraint of marriage	426

Conditions against contesting the will	428

Conditions requiring residence in a certain place	429

Superstitious conditions	430

Sundry other conditions	431

CHAPTER XX	434

The effect of a direction for the payment of debts	437

The effect of a direction to executors to pay debts and legacies	439

The effect of blending realty with personalty	440

The effect of a blended residuary bequest	442

Of charges on lands specifically devised	443

CHAPTER XXI	454

Of the words goods and chattels 273 Of the word effects	470

Of the word money Its ordinary meaning	471

Of the word money Its extended construction 276 Of the words mortgages and securities for money	473

Sundry other words of description	474

CHAPTER XXII	476

The same subject continued The American rule	487

Heirs as a classWhen ascertained	488

Of gifts to next of kin Who entitled	490

Next of kin as a classWhen ascertained	491

Of gifts to relations Who entitled	492

Relations as a class When ascertained	493

Husband and wife not relatives nor next of kin nor heir	494

Of gifts to family	495

Of gifts to representatives 297 Of gifts to survivors 298 Of gifts to a classThe time of ascertainment	498

effect of additional words of description	500

The effect of the shares being payable at different times	502

The effect of the shares being payable on the majority of the youngest	503

The effect of the gift being of a specific amount to each of the class 304 In what proportion the beneficiaries will takeThe general rule	504

The same subject continued The contrary rule 306 Reference to the statute to ascertain the persons and their shares	507

Sundry cases	509

CHAPTER XXIII	511

Of technical words	512

The words of a will taken in their ordinary sense	513

Of the testators expressed intention	515

The general intention prevails over the particular 313 All the parts of the will to be construed together	517

The same subject continued Of codicils	518

Some effect to be given every part	519

Of the presumption against partial intestacy	520

Of the construction of illegal devises 318 Of repugnancy The general rule	521

Of the manner of reconciling apparent repugnancies 320 Of rejecting words	524

Of supplying words The general rule	525

Of supplying wordsIllustrations	526

Of transposing words 324 Of changing words	528

Of punctuation 326 Of gifts void for uncertainty	529

Of uncertainty as to the object	530

A partly erroneous description may suffice	531

Of uncertainty as to the quantity	533

The same subject continued	534

Construction not to be varied by subsequent events 333 When the testators circumstances may vary the construction	536

The heir not to be disinherited save by necessary implication 335 Gifts by implication The effect of recitals and assignments of reasons	537

Of cumulative legacies The general rule	539

Of cumulative legaciesIllustrations	540

The presumption with respect to gifts to creditors	541

The effect of a debtor becoming the personal representative of his creditor	543

Constructive conversion	544

The direction to convert must be positive	545

Of the time when the conversion is deemed complete 343 Conversion confined to the purposes of the will 344 Of partial failure of the purpose of co...	547

CHAPTER XXIV	549

Of evidence of intent to rebut legal presumptions	565

Exoneration of personalty	572

Common terms and phrases

4th Eng adeemed ademption admissible Allen Appeal Att'y-Gen attestation clause attesting witnesses Barb Beav bequeathed bequest Bigelow's Jarman Bradf Brown charitable citing Clark Code codicil common law Conn construed court Curt Cush Dakota death declarations Demarest Desaus devise dispose disposition dower evidence executed fact fraud Georgia gift Gratt Hagg heirs held Implied revocation instrument intention to revoke Iowa Jones Law Jan legacy legatee Lewis marriage Mass Montana Moore P. C. C. Myrick's Prob N. J. Eq North Carolina Notes nuncupative Ohio St paper person personalty Phila Phillim presence presumption probate provision real estate realty Redf rule signature signed Smith Stat statute Statute of Frauds Stimson's Strob subscribed subsequent sufficient Swab testamentary testamentary capacity testator testator's tion trust undue influence Utah valid vest void Washington Territory wife words writing written

Popular passages

Page 34 - That no will shall be valid unless it shall be in writing and executed in manner herein-after mentioned ; (that is to say,) it shall be signed at the foot or end thereof by the testator, or by some other person in his presence and by his direction; and such signature shall be made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and such witnesses shall attest and shall subscribe the will in the presence of the testator, but no form of attestation...‎

Appears in 621 books from 1813-2007

Page 107 - And be it further enacted, that every will made by a man or woman shall be revoked by his or her marriage (except a will made in exercise of a power of appointment, when the real or personal estate thereby appointed would not in default of such appointment pass to his or her heir...‎

Appears in 232 books from 1832-2005

Page 549 - ... to be interested under the will, and to the property which is claimed as the subject of disposition, and to the circumstances of the testator and of his family and affairs; for the purpose of enabling the court to identify the person or thing intended by the testator...‎

Appears in 113 books from 1835-2000

Page 551 - Where there is nothing in the context of a will from which it is apparent that a testator has used the words in which he has expressed himself in any other than their strict and primary sense, and where his words so interpreted are sensible with reference to extrinsic circumstances, it is an inflexible rule of construction that the words of the will shall be interpreted in their strict and primary sense, and in no other, although they may be capable of some popular or secondary interpretation...‎

Appears in 82 books from 1835-2000

Page 138 - And be it further enacted, that no will or codicil or any part thereof, which shall be in any manner revoked, shall be revived otherwise than by the re-execution thereof, or by a codicil executed in manner hereinbefore required, and showing an intention to revive the same ; and when any will or codicil which shall be partly revoked, and afterwards wholly revoked, shall be revived, such revival shall not extend to so much thereof as shall have been revoked before the revocation of the whole thereof,...‎

Appears in 172 books from 1837-2006

Page 158 - In a strict and legal seN.se that is properly the domicil of a person where he has his true, fixed, permanent home and principal establishment, and to which, whenever he is absent, he has the intention of returning (animus rercrtcndi) .u [Italics supplied.] Mr.‎

Appears in 489 books from 1792-2008

Page 33 - Kent, or the custom of any borough, or any other particular custom, shall be in writing, and signed by the party so devising the same, or by some other person in his presence and by his express directions, and shall be attested and subscribed in the presence of the said devisor by three or four credible witnesses, or else they shall be utterly void and of none effect.‎

Appears in 255 books from 1805-2000

Page 307 - Devise shall not lapse, but shall take effect as if the Death of such Person had happened immediately after the Death of the Testator, unless a contrary Intention shall appear by the Will.‎

Appears in 424 books from 1830-2006

Page 556 - Now, there is but one case in which it appears to us that this sort of evidence of intention can properly be admitted, and that is, where the meaning of the testator's words is neither ambiguous nor obscure, and where the devise is on the face of it perfect and intelligible, but, from some of the circumstances admitted in proof, an ambiguity arises, as to which of the two or more things, or which of the two or more persons (each answering the words in the will), the testator intended to express.‎

Appears in 59 books from 1840-2004

Page 498 - The same rule applies where a devise or bequest is made to a person and the children of another person, or to a person described as standing in a certain relation to the testator and the children of another person standing in the same relation, as to 'my son A and the children of my son B...‎

Appears in 46 books from 1844-1977

Bibliographic information

Title	A Manual of the Law of Wills: As Determined by the Leading Courts of England and the United States
Author	Charles Fisk Beach (Jr.)
Contributor	Pratt, Charles A.
Publisher	Bancroft-Whitney, 1888
Length	605 pages

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