Neill's Estate

Citations

• 222 Pa. 142
• 70 A. 942
• 1908 Pa. LEXIS 666

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Revocation—Subsequent marriage — Act of April 8, 1833, P. L. 249.</p> <p>A paper testamentary in character executed by an unmarried woman is revoked as a will by her subsequent marriage.</p> <p>Will — Power of appointment — Intention of donee — Deed of settlement— Trust and trustee. ■</p> <p>The intention of the donee of a power is the true criterion to determine its execution. But this intention must appear in the instrument itself.. In Pennsylvania the rule is, that the instrument must refer to the power to be executed, or actually dispose of the subject of it. When the donee of a power refers to it, or when he disposes of the subject of it by such a description as identifies it, the intent to execute it is free from uncertainty.</p> <p>An unmarried woman made a deed of trust placing one-half of her estate in the form of a spendthrift trust. She provided that after her death in default of issue or children, her estate was to go to such uses as she should by her last will and testament, or writing in the nature thereof, direct and appoint. Subsequently, she made a will by which after bequeathing certain legacies she directed that all the rest of her money should be given to her husband or the man who was to be her husband, naming him. Shortly afterwards she married the man designated in the will, and in a few months afterwards died without issue. Held, that the paper signed as a will was revoked as a will by the subsequent marriage, and that the paper, even if considered as in the nature of a will, lacked an essential to the execution of a power because not showing the intent of the person attempting to execute it, and that there was no valid exercise of the power of appointment over the portion of her estate covered by the deed of trust.</p> <p>Mitchell, C. J., dissents.</p>