Wise v. Rupp

Citations

• 269 Pa. 505
• 112 A. 548
• 1921 Pa. LEXIS 595

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Construction—Perpetuities—•Accumulations—Uncertainty — Act of April 18, 1858, P. L. 508 — Act of May 26, 1891, P. L. 119 — Care of cemetery lots.</p> <p>1. In the construction of a will, the courts are not permitted to supply what the testator has failed to indicate; and if, after every endeavor, the judicial expositor finds himself unable in regard to any material fact, to penetrate through the obscurity in which the testator had involved his intention, the failure of the intended disposition is the inevitable consequence.</p> <p>2. Where a testator after directing his executors to sell certain real estate “in one to fifteen years” after his wife’s death, gives “a dower of $300 on the same to run one hundred years......to be divided into three equal parts share and share alike to the nearest relatives,” and further directs that certain other real estate “and the interest on the dower” should be used “for head and foot tombstones and the age to be cut on the stone whatever there [sic] age may be of the person that is buried thereon,” the gift is void for uncertainty, and because it violates the rule against perpetuities, and offends against the statute forbidding accumulations.</p> <p>3. The Act of May 26, 1891, P. L, 119, relating to bequests for the care of cemetery lots, does not apply to such a case, because téstator did not provide for “the maintenance or care” of anything. This construction is confirmed by the fact that testator, in a codicil, bequeathed a sum for the care of his own burial lot.</p>