Denlinger's Estate

Citations

• 170 Pa. 104
• 32 A. 573
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1368

Syllabus

<p>Will — Gift to a class.</p> <p>A bequest to a number of persons not named, but answering a general description, is a gift to them as a class; but this rule of construction is only intended to settle the testator’s intentions, where they do not sufficiently appear in the will itself. The rule is not to be followed if the will of the testator shows how he intended the class should be made up.</p> <p>Testator provided in the same paragraph of his will that, after the death of his wife, his estate should be divided into two portions, one for his own relatives, who wore “ all the children of my brothers, Henry and David, share and share alike; and the other for his wife’s relatives, who were “ the children of the brothers and sisters of my wife,” naming them, “ and in case of the death of any of said children and legatees aforesaid, leaving issue, then said issue to take the share or part that the parent would have taken if living.” Held, that the whole paragraph must be read together, which makes it clear that a grandniece of testator, being a child of a niece of testator who had died in testator’s lifetime, was entitled to share in the distribution of the estate.</p>