Snyder's Estate

Citations

• 217 Pa. 71
• 66 A. 157
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 658

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Specific legacies — Latent ambiguity.</p> <p>Where testatrix bequeathed to legatees a certain amount of bank stock of a bank which she designates as the “Second National Bank of Mercer,” and it appears that there was no such bank of that name in the town of Mercer, a latent ambiguity in the will is disclosed, and evidence dehors it may be admitted to show that the second national bank to bo established in the town was the' “Farmers’ & Mechanics’ National Bank of Mercer” and that this bank was known to the testatrix and to other persons in the town as the “ Second National Bank.”</p> <p>Wills — Specific legacies — Bank stock.</p> <p>A specific legacy is a gift by will of a specific article or part of the testator’s estate, which is identified and distinguished from all other things of the same kind, and which may be satisfied only by the delivery of the particular thing. The law leans against specific legacies and to general ones.</p> <p>A legacy of stock, of whatever denomination, is not prima facie specific, but is a general legacy; although the testator may have had stock of the description mentioned sufficient to answer the bequest.</p> <p>Testatrix by her will directed as follows: “I also give and bequeath to S. six hundred dollars of bank stock of the Second National Bank of Mercer .... I give and bequeath to my beloved brother P. two thousand dollars of the bank stock of bank referred to above.” At the time the will was executed testatrix was the owner of twenty-six shares of the stock of the bank so known by her. After she executed her will she exchanged the twenty-six shares of bank stock for stock in a trust company. Held, that the legacies were general, and that the legatees were entitled in distribution to an amount equal to plaintiff’s twenty-six shares of the bank stock at its market value.</p>