Opinion by
Thе will of Mary A. Gregg, under which the Washington Hospital' claims a charitable bequest, was executed on Oсtober 8, 1899, between the hours of 3 and 5 o’clock p. m. She died on November 8, of the same year, bеtween the hours of 7 and 8 o’clock p. m., and the single question raised on this. appeal is whether thе bequest to the appellant is defeated by the Act of April 26, 1855, P. L. 328.
By the' eleventh section of the act it is declared “ that no estate, real or personal, shall hereafter be bequeathеd, devised, or conveyed to any body politic, or to any person in trust for religious or charitablе uses, except the same be done by deed or will, attested by two credible, and, at the time, disinterеsted witnesses, at least one calendar month before the de
In the elaborate brief submitted by counsel for the appellant decisions by courts in this country and in England have been cited upon the general principles regulаting the computation of time, and, in the light of some of them, we are asked to disturb the decree bеlow and declare the bequest operative. We are not, however, dealing with general principles or rules of construction, but with the express words of a statute, which cannot be overridden, even in the furtherance of what may seem to be justice. The fiction of the law that a day has nо fractions yields at times, when equity requires that hours be counted, or that the exact time a thing is done be noted, but never when the duration of time, as fixed by a statute, is free from all doubt. “ At least one calendar month ” must elapse between the execution of a will containing a charitable bequest and the death of the testator, if the bequest is to be valid. The meaning of the words “ at ]east ” is “ in the smallest оr lowest degree; at the lowest(estimate, or at the smallest concession or claim; at thе smallest number: ” 4 Cyc. of Law & Proc., 366. In declaring that “at least one calendar month” must elapso between the execution of a will containing a charitable bequest and the death of the testаtor, the manifest meaning of the statute is that such a month must fully elapse between the dates of the twо events. A calendar month is made up of days — in this case, of thirty-one days. These are full, clear thirty-оne days, not thirty days and fractions of two
The act of 1855 is for the protection of a tеstator for the last full calendar month of his life against yielding to any influences during that period — so oftеn a susceptible one — which may unduly lead him to devote his estate, or any portion of it, to religiоus or charitable uses. It must be literally read and strictly construed, if effect is to be given to the legislative intent, and cannot be stretched to save a bequest clearly intended by the act to be void. Charitable or religious institutions claiming bequests or devises must bring themselves within it. As between them and the next of kin of a testator there are no equities, and the rights of each are such only as are given by the statute.
As thе meaning of the words of the act under consideration is so plain, we do not deem it necessаry to apply the rule as to the computation of time, nor refer to the Act of June 20,1883, P. L. 136, declaratory of it, requiring the exclusion of the day on which an act is done. Under that rule, with October 8 excluded, the full calendar month would not have expired until the end of November 8.
Decree affirmed and appeal dismissed at cost of appellant.