Littig v. Hance

Citations

• 81 Md. 416
• 32 A. 343
• 1895 Md. LEXIS 85

Syllabus

<p>General and Specific Legacies — Ademption of Legacy — Gift of Debts — Gift of a Fund — Erroneous Description — Appeal by Excctitor.</p> <p>There is a distinction between a gift in a will of a debt as a debt, and the gift of the sum of money produced when the debt has been recovered. In the first case the legacy is specific and the collection of the debt in the testator’s lifetime will adeem the legacy. In the other case the gift extends to and includes the fund in its altered state.</p> <p>A legacy will not be construed to be specific rather than general, unless the language of the will imperatively requires it.</p> <p>When a fund is given subject to debts, or subject to other legacies, then a gift of the residue is not specific.</p> <p>An erroneous addition to the description of the thing given by a will does not defeat the gift, when the thing is otherwise sufficiently identified, but in such cases the question is, conceding the mistake, is the intent clear upon the whole language employed.</p> <p>A debt is money due upon a contract; there must therefore be a creditor and a debtor as well as a sum due, and a contract out of which the indebtedness arises before there can be a debt.</p> <p>A testatrix'bequeathed as follows after certain small legacies: “And whereas the estate of my late husband, S., is indebted to me in a large sum of money for dividends, &c., to which I am entitled under the terms of his will, and also all moneys that may be due and owing to me from his estate and my late son F., after the payment of the money legacies hereinbefore mentioned, I give and devise the same absolutely to my sister-in-law, C.” Under the will of the deceased husband of the testatrix, she was entitled to a life-estate in one-third of his property and certain sums were due to her as interest thereon at the time of the execution of her will. She was also then entitled to a sum as her share of commissions as an executrix of his will. She was also entitled to a sum from the