56 Iowa 676 | Iowa | 1881
A devise of a thing by any name, or to a person by any name, however different the name used in the will may be from the true name of the thing or person, is a good devise, . provided that it be shown that the name used was one by which the testator was accustomed to designate the thing or person, and such showing may be made by parol. It is always competent to supplement the language of the will by parol evidence so far as is necessary to apply the language of the will to the object or person intended. Parol evidence is allowable too to explain a latent ambiguity. Whether the ambiguity is such in this case we need not determine. That question will arise perhaps upon the issue tendered by the answer.
The cross petition, upon which arises the only question ' now presented, seeks to change the will. It is true it does not seek to eliminate a plainly intelligible term as in Fitzpatrick v. Fitzpatrick, but it seeks sdmething equally objectionable, and that is, to supply terms, without which the cross petition virtually confesses that the description is fatally defective.
The ruling in sustaining the demurrer is
Affirmed.