3 Bradf. 414 | N.Y. Sur. Ct. | 1855
The parties claiming as next of kin on the distribution of the estate, are several nieces and nephews, and an uncle of the deceased ; there being no father nor mother, brother nor sister living. The disposition of the assets falls under the fifth subdivision of the eighty-second section of the Revised Statutes, (page 281, 4th edition,) which provides, that in case there be no widow, and no children, and no representatives of a child, the whole surplus shall be distributed to the next of kin in equal degree to the deceased and their legal representatives. The ninth subdivision of the same section also provides, that where the next of kin entitled to share in the estate are of equal degree, their shares shall be equal. In the present instance, the decedent was unmarried, and left no parents, grand-parents, brothers or sisters. The statute of distributions, seems to have been taken in some degree from the 118th Hovel of Justinian, which defined the rights of kindred to the succession to the estate of an intestate. The English statute was penned by Sir Walter Walker, (1 P. Wms., 27;) a famous civilian ; and at a very early period, its interpretation was declared to be regulated by the principles of the civil law. The great British commentator is unwilling to acknowledge this derivation of the statute from