237 Pa. 143 | Pa. | 1912
Opinion by
The testatrix gave the residue of her estate, amounting to $1,236,989.25, equally to the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia, the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, the Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church in the XTnited States of America, and the Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers and the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Ministers. Two of these organizations — the first and fourth — held assets at the time of the death of testatrix equal to or exceeding the amounts which their respective charters authorized them to hold, but, after her death, the powers of each were enlarged by a decree of one of the Courts of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, and, at the time of the adjudication in the court below, each was authorized to receive an annual income in excess of what would be realized from one-fourth of the residuary estate of the testatrix. The appellants, her next of kin, objected to the award of one-fourth of the residuary estate to either the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia or the Presbyterian Board of Relief for Disabled Ministers and the Widows and Orphans of Deceased Ministers, on the ground of its incapacity to take the bequest, and their contention is that, as the two bequests have failed, the testatrix died intestate as to one-half of her residuary estate, and the same has passed to them as her next of kin. The court below refused to sustain thiá contention, and from the decree awarding to each of the appellees one-fourth of the residuary estate there
If the bequests to the appellees had not failed at the time of the adjudication, the appellants had no standing in the court below, and have none here; and, if their appeals are to be dismissed because the bequests had not failed, no other question raised by them or the appellees will call for any discussion.
It is first to be noted that the bequests to the appellees are not void because they are given by a will not executed in compliance with the requirements of the statute regulating the execution of a will making a charitable or religious bequest. It was executed more than one calendar month before the decease of the testatrix, and was attested by two credible and, at the time, disinterested witnesses. The sole contention ot the appellants is that the bequests failed because they gave to each of the appellees an annual income in excess of what it was entitled to receive. Did the bequest fail for that reason? Starting with the Act of April 26,1855, P. L. 328, there is found in it an express declaration of legislative intention that no disposition of property for any religious, charitable, literary or scientific use shall fail by reason of its being in excess of the annual income which the corporation to which the bequest is made is permitted to receive; but where such a disposition is made, the duty of the Orphans’ Court is, by its decree, to carry into effect the intent of the testator so far as the same can be ascertained and carried into effect consistently with law or equity, and. if the disposition be in excess of the annual value permitted to the corporation by law, “such disposition, so far as exceeding the power of the courts to determine the same by the rules of law or equity, shall be taken to be further regulated and disposed of by the legislature of the Commonwealth in manner as nearly in conformity with the intent of the donor or testator as practicable,” Following the Act of 1855 is the Act of
The appellants having no right to complain of the decree made by the court below, their appeals from it are dismissed with costs.