Robison v. Female Orphan Asylum of Portland

Citations

• 123 U.S. 702
• 8 S. Ct. 327
• 31 L. Ed. 293
• 1887 U.S. LEXIS 2208

Syllabus

<p>APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE.</p> <p>In construing doubtful clauses in a will, the court will endeavor to ascertain the testator’s intention through their meaning as reasonably interpreted in the particular case, rather than resort to formal rules, or to a consideration of judicial determination in other cases, apparently similar.</p> <p>The testator in this case provided in his will that his widow 'should have the income of all his estate, she having the right to spend it, but not to have it accumulate for her heirs; that his two sisters if living at the time of the death of himself and his wife, or the one that might then be living, should “ have the income.of all my estate as long as they may live, and at their death to be divided in three parts, one-third of the income to go to ” a charitable institution, one-third to another institution, and one third to another. Both sisters died before the testator. Held, that ’the limitations in the two subdivisions of the will were to be taken, in connection with each other, as a complete disposition, in the mind of the testator, of his estate giving to the widow an estate for life, with an estate over for life to the sisters contingent upon one or the other of them surviving the widow, and with the ultimate remainder to the charitable institutions.</p>