77 Mo. 162 | Mo. | 1882
In Hastings v. Myers, 21 Mo. 519, it was held that the right of a widow to $200 worth of personal property was absolute, did not depend upon her election, and vested immediately upon the death of her husband. This ruling was based upon what is now sections 35, 36 and 37, page 88, Wagner’s Statutes, and it was followed in Cummings v. Cummings, 51 Mo. 261. The present application is based not only on the section referred to, but upon section 33 of the same article, which declares that “ in addition to dower, the widow shall be allowed to keep, as her absolute property, a family bible, * * all grain, meat, vegetables, groceries and other provisions on
In Bryant v. McCune, 49 Mo. 546, where the testator bequeathed to his wife a large amount of both real and personal property to hold during her life, and she having died a contest arose as to who was entitled to the property embraced in section 33, supra, it was said: “ The argument then, that the property was disposed of by the general language of the will, and that she took only a life estate in it under the will, has no foundation in fact. It is urged that the testator must have intended that his wife should receive and hold what was given her by the will in lieu of dower and in lieu of her statutory right to the property in dispute. But there is no indication in the will that the wife was expected to surrender anything, and in the. language of Gardner, J., in Sheldon v. Bliss, 8 N. Y. 31: “ It is an established principle that a provision in the will of the husband in favor of the wife will never be construed by implication to be in lieu of dower, or any other interest in his estate given by law; the design to substitute one for the other must be unequivocally expressed.” There are no such unequivocal expressions in the will of the testator in the case at bar. We might presume, we might surmise, that the testator intended in his will to dis
