2 Mills Surr. 517 | N.Y. Sur. Ct. | 1902
— Decedent died March 18, 1900, at the age of forty-seven, leaving a considerable estate chiefly realty, derived from her father. By the paper presented for probate, after providing for the payment of certain charitable bequests and a legacy to her lawyer, she bestowed the entire residue of her estate upon George W. Thurston. Her husband, from whom decedent had been judicially separated in 1892 upon her application, and certain first cousins contest the probate of the paper in question upon the usual ground®. The testimony shows that the decedent had been estranged from her relatives for many years, and that her testamentary intentions, which were from time to time varied as the objects of her •regard succeeded one another, disclosed one dominant design', that her relatives should receive no part of her property. This intention on her part was consistently maintained, and from her standpoint it was not without justification. As to the provisions of the will, considered in themselves, I am unable to perceive that they are of such a character as to indicate a lack of comprehension on the part of the deceased of their scope or meaning or effect. The chief object of her bounty may have been her paramour, but he seems to have been the only one to whom she clung during the latter years of her life. When she had been forsaken by her relatives he cared for her and did what he could to administer to her comfort and alleviate her condition. When exhausted, dejected, or ill from her repeated
Probate decreed.