Cummins v. Riordon

Citations

• 84 Kan. 791
• 115 P. 568
• 1911 Kan. LEXIS 419

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Wills — Repugnant Calls — Interpretation. Where a will contains repugnant calls in the description of land devised, that call may be rejected which was likely to have least engaged the attention of the testator, and in which there was the greatest likelihood of error.</p> <p>2. - Description of Land. Although ordinarily the statement of acreage is the least important part of a description of land, it may he controlling when it obviously was the intention of the testator that a specified quantity of land should be devised.</p> <p>3. - Ownership of Land Devised — Presumption. In the absence of anything to suggest the contrary, a testator must be understood as asserting that he is the owner of a tract of land which he undertakes to devise, although he does not in terms refer to it as his land or employ any equivalent expression.</p> <p>4. -Land Devised — Parol Evidence. Parol evidence is admissible to identify the land devjsed by ascertaining to what tract the description will apply.</p> <p>5. -Error in Description of Land Devised — Interpretation. Where a testator purports to devise to each of two sons forty acres of land in a particular county, and then describes the tract devised to each as the half of a designated quarter of a quarter section, and it is shown that he owned a half of the quarter section named, and no other land in that county, it is clear that he intended that each son should receive a half of the eighty acres, and the will should be so construed.</p>