O'Connor's Estate

Citations

• 273 Pa. 391
• 117 A. 61
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 585

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Probate—Deed—Contract—Extrinsic evidence —Intention — Form of paper.</p> <p>1. If a paper offered for probate is testamentary in character, is executed in the manner provided by statute and its purpose is that the whole or any part of the maker’s estate shall be given, after his death, to the distributees named therein, it is in law a will and may be probated as such, though in form a deed or contract.</p> <p>2. Where a decedent has done two acts, one in form distinctively testamentary and the other and later act distinctively nontestamentary in form, and couched, with strict technical propriety in the apt language of a contract, the latter should not be probated without clear proof of fraud, accident or mistake.</p> <p>3. Under such circumstances, the fact that the form of a deed or contract has been adopted, rather than the form of a will, may be a matter of large significance.</p> <p>4. Where the language used in an instrument admits of but one construction, or has definite legal import, collateral inquiries as to the intention of the maker are not permissible; the court can only construe the meaning of the words the maker uses.</p> <p>5. If, however, the court, having before it two papers executed about the same time, both alleged to be wills, after due consideration of the language used in both, is still left in doubt as to whether or not the one last executed was intended as a will, extrinsic evidence may be offered to solve the doubt.</p>