Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the presumption of survivorship / by James Bell Pettigrew. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![have become entitled if the survivorship of the General could have been proved, it was argued that the General, as a man of courage and accustomed to danger, in all probability outlived his wife and daughter —a circumstance rendered the more likely from the ])robability of his being on deck when the vessel foundered, wliile his wife and daughter, with characteristic timidity, would be in the cabin, and consequently liable to perish first. On behalf of the representative of the daughter (a maternal uncle) it was argued that as she was young, and conse- quently unwilling to part with life, while tlie General was old, and therefore ill prepared to battle with the storm, the chances of survivor- .ship were greatly in favour of the danghtei’. The representative of the wife lodged a sejiarate claim j and the Court finding the arguments equally solid and ingenious on all sides, advised a compromise, which was agreed to.' This case, which seems to have set at nought every pi’inciple of judicial decision, affords a I’emarkable example of the equilibrium which may obtain between dissimilar jirobabilities. The rougher sex, age (and consequent debility) of the General, contrasted with the gentler sex, youth (and consequent hardihood) of the daughter, and the one negatived the other. It therefore seems to be a case re- quiring the interference of positive law, and illustrates very forcibly the objection stated to Section V. of the Code Napoleon. This section, it will be remembered, makes provision for individuals of different sexes who perish between the ages of fifteen and sixty, when the ages are equal, or where the difference does not exceed one year; but leaves the question wholly undetermined when the period gi’eatly exceeds a year. A case resembling the foregoing in many respects is that of Job Taylor, quarter-master sergeant in the Royal Artillery. Taylor, it appears, had been in Portugal on foreign service, and was returning to England with his wife Lucy Taylor, whom he had appointed by his will as his sole executrix and sole residuary legatee. The vessel in which they sailed struck on a reef in Falmouth harbour, and up- wards of two hundred, amongwhom wasTaylor and his spouse, perished. Taylor died possessed of property to the amount of 4000^. A bill in Chancery was filed by the next of kin of the wife against those of the husband, but no pei’sonal representative of the latter appearing, the case for a time was at a stand. Shortly after the contending parties mutually applied for a limited administration, which being refused by the Court on the plea that it could not be given where a general one might be obtained if ap[)lied foi-, it became a question ultimately whether the general administration should be granted to the rela- tives of the husband as dying intestate, his wife not having sur- vived so as to become entitled under his will, or the representatives of his wife as his residuary legatee, she having survived so as to become entitled under that charactei’. From evidence adduced it ap- peared that a short time j)rior to the vessel going to pieces, Lucy Taylor was in the cabin while the husband was on deck, that being resolved if possible to save his wife, Taylor had offered large sums to such as ^ Vide Fearne’s Posthumous Works, p. 37, where elaborate and skilful arguments are advanced on either side.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21955876_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
