Ihrie's Estate

Citations

• 162 Pa. 369
• 29 A. 750
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 989

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Bequests—Per stirpes and per capita — “ Between.”</p> <p>In the interpretation of wills, the presumption is in favor of the proper and correct use of words, whether technical or belonging to the language of ordinary life. Illiteracy raises no presumption that words are used incorrectly. At most it lets in the conjecture that they may be. In the absence of anything in the will itself to show the use of a word in a different sense, the correct use of the word will prevail, although the word is not infrequently used, by the uneducated and colloquially, in a different sense.</p> <p>Where a testator provides that the residue of her estate is to be divided “ between ” her husband’s grandchildren and the children of another, the presumption is in favor of the word “between,” referring to two, and not to more in the sense of “among,” and the residuary estate is correctly distributed in two parts per stirpes.</p> <p>Wills like contracts are to be construed according to the actual intent of the maker, as ascertained from his words.</p>