32 Ga. 597 | Ga. | 1861
By the Court.
delivering the opinion.
What is a share of the testator’s estate ? Does the residuum have to be divided into three parts, and are the legatees mentioned in the third, fifth and eleventh items of the will alone entitled to it; or is his remaining property, real and personal, after deducting the eight specific legacies, to be divided into eleven parts; and are all entitled to participate ?
It is impossible to solve this question with any certainty. We guess and conjecture, this is all. One of the Court adopted the former opinion—the other two Judges the latter— though all admitted that there was too much doubt and uncertainty attending the matter to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. The same decision would characterize the common, as well as the legal mind, upon this point.
Our conclusion is, to direct the specific legacies to bo paid, and to declare the rest of the will, which attempts to dispose of the residue of his estate, void, for uncertainty, and to declare an intestacy as to that; and under our statute, the executor holds it as trustee for the next of kin.
Let the judgment be reversed.