Surrogate's court, county of New York : In the matter of proving the last will and testament of Henry Parish, deceased / Argument of Wm. M. Evarts, esq. November 10, 1857. Reported by Roberts & Warburton, law reporters.

  • William M. Evarts
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Surrogate's court, county of New York : In the matter of proving the last will and testament of Henry Parish, deceased / Argument of Wm. M. Evarts, esq. November 10, 1857. Reported by Roberts & Warburton, law reporters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    property during the last seven years of his life. It raised a question not as in the case of intestacy, not as in favor of the heirs, as heirs, whom the law favors, not in refer- ence to those who stand in the relation of expectants of the equal bounty of a decedent, having no other claims on the disposition of his property, but solely between certain residuary legatees, who, if at all, were to take of a property left in the year 1856, by the death of the decedent, to be distributed under the operation of law upon the increasing residuary estate which had been dis- posed of by the testator in his original will, and another, different residuary legatee who claimed on the testamen- tary papers made later in his life, nearer to the time when his will was to operate upon his property, and more in view of the amount of that property; and of the situa- tion of the decedent towards it, and towards those whom he should leave behind him. Between these residuary lega- tees, and between this operation of an old will, and this later attempt of the testator to modify and apply his will in respect to the property, and towards the persons whom he should leave his survivors, this litigation is presented. It is true that these residuary legatees under the origi- nal will were of the blood of Mr. Parish, and that they were among his heirs, but I am at a loss to see how, in the relation of blood, or in the quality of heirs, they stand upon any other or any better right than the two sisters of the decedent, who, at the time of the making of his will, through the whole period of his subsequent life, and to his death, stood in an equal place in his affec- tions, and occupied apparently an equal share of his regard, as manifested in the intercourse of life. So, therefore, it is undoubtedly, both in form and in substance, true that the controversy, as respects the different inte- rests involved, is between two sets of residuary legatees, one consisting of two of his heirs out of four; his two brothers to the exclusion of his two sisters, and the other of his wife.
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