Fauley v. McLaughlin

Citations

• 80 Wash. 547
• 141 P. 1037
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1337

Syllabus

<p>Gifts-—-Causa Mortis—Requisites—Delivery. Under the rule that, in order to constitute a gift causa mortis, the donor must not only signify his intention to make the gift, but he who asserts title by gift must prove delivery, either actual or symbolical, by clear and satisfactory evidence, such a gift is not established by evidence showing that decedent, at the time he was preparing to undergo a surgical operation, wrote, sealed and addressed, but never mailed, a letter to the lady to whom he was engaged to be married, reciting that “if anything should happen to me, I want you to have one-fourth (14) of my entire estate after debts, if any, are paid;” that he recovered from the operation, but died from the infirmity about a year and a half later; that subsequent to writing the above letter, he made inquiries of an attorney in regard to the execution of a will, and was told that, in the absence of a will, his estate would be divided share and share alike among his sisters; and the above letter after his death, being found among his effects, still sealed, was mailed by the sisters, in ignorance of its contents, to the lady to whom it was addressed.</p>