(DOWNLOAD) "Matter Estate Mary M. Dammann" by Court of Appeals of New York " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Matter Estate Mary M. Dammann
- Author : Court of Appeals of New York
- Release Date : January 09, 1963
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 57 KB
Description
In this proceeding the executor of the will of Mary M. Dammann, besides presenting his accounts for settlement, asked the Surrogate to construe several parts of the will. Of the Surrogate's holdings made in response to the petition, one only is disputed on this appeal -- that is, his decision that because of the death, prior to the testatrix' death, of one of eight persons named as residuary legatees without any gift over, the one-eighth share of the prior-deceased residuary legatee must be treated as and pass as intestate property of the decedent. If the decree be affirmed, the result will be that one eighth (about $25,000) of the residue will go to respondent Heinrich Dammann, who resides in Germany and is decedent's sole surviving first cousin and distributee, rather than be redivided among the seven surviving named residuary legatees. As the Surrogate saw it, payment to Heinrich Dammann is mandated by decisions like Matter of Trumble (199 N. Y. 454) and Wright v. Wright (225 N. Y. 329), and many others, which state the rule that where a residuary legacy lapses and the will makes no gift over the lapsed legacy goes to the statutory distributees as intestate property. The rule, it was held below, must be enforced even where ""the decedent's will signifies an intention that such distributee should not inherit any part of his estate"", citing Pomroy v. Hincks (180 N. Y. 73). On the contrary, we hold that effect must here be given to the manifest and clearly expressed intent of the testatrix that the whole of her residuary estate go to the named eight or the survivors of them.