Altdorfer's Estate

Citations

• 225 Pa. 136
• 73 A. 1068
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 620

Syllabus

<p>Will — Construction—Nearest relatives — Repetition of same words.</p> <p>1. While the repetition by a testator of the same words or phrases to which he has previously given a definite meaning will prima facie be presumed to carry the same meaning in the second use, yet this presumption must give way to any indication of a different intent on the part of the testator.</p> <p>2. The testator after leaving his whole estate to his wife, adding “ she has helped to make it, therefore she shall enjoy it,” wrote, “it is my wish .... that my nearest relatives, brother, sister or their children, may they yet live at Kircheim, (if they should be living) .... shall inherit one-half of all the estate my wife may possess at the time of her death .... the other half shall come to the nearest relatives of my wife or if she wants to make a will to any one else she may name she can dispose of one half of all she may leave just as she pleases.” Held, that the words “nearest relatives” as applied to the kin of the wife, were not to be construed in the same sense as the same words as applied to the kin of the testator, but that they should be limited to such as should be properly defined as nearest.</p> <p>3. In such a case a sister of the wife takes to the exclusion of nephews and nieces, children of a deceased sister.</p>