Hodgson's Estate

Citations

• 270 Pa. 210
• 112 A. 778
• 1921 Pa. LEXIS 359

Syllabus

<p>Wills—Probate — Lost will—-Two subscribing witnesses — Content's of will—Evidence—Burden of proof—Act of June 7, 1917¡ p. l. m.</p> <p>1. Proof of a lost will is made out only by proof, by two witnesses, of execution and of contents, each of which must separately depose to all the facts necessary to complete the chain of evidence, so that no link in it may depend on the credibility of one.</p> <p>2. Under the Act of June 7, 1917, P. L. 403, two witnesses must prove the contents of the lost will, substantially as set forth, in the copy offered for probate.</p> <p>3. In proving a lost will, the burden rests on the proponents.</p> <p>4. Evidence that the will was designated by the decedent to the subscribing witnesses, by a particular name, is not such a declaration of identification as would supply the proof of contents necessary by two witnesses.</p> <p>5. Nor can such declaration be used in support of the scrivener’s testimony as to contents, inasmuch as each witness must be competent without aid borrowed from the other.</p> <p>6. Declarations can be availing only when they go to the immediate act of disposition.</p> <p>7. That the reproduction of the lost will may correspond in disposition with what those who knew the testator, described as the most probable objects of his bounty, and that such evidence was confirmatory of the disputed will, does not bridge the gap made by the absence of two witnesses as to the contents.</p>