43 A. 539 | R.I. | 1899
The will in question gives pecuniary legacies to the amount of $7,700. The funds in the hands of the executor are not enough to pay them in full, and the executor asks for instructions.
The fourth clause of the will gives to Dorcas H. Thayer "the interest of $1,000, to be paid to her semi-annually, or *297 oftener, during the term of her natural life; and at her decease $500 of the above-named $1,000 shall be paid to the Treasurer of the American Bible Society with which the Methodist Episcopal Church is connected, and the remaining $500 shall be paid to the treasurer of the New England Southern Conference Missionary Society, auxiliary to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, incorporated by the legislature of the state of New York, for the use of said society."
Two legacies, of $100 each, are given by the seventh clause to persons who died before the testatrix, and the clause provides: "If any of the persons named above in this seventh item be not living at the time of the settlement of my estate, then the share of that person or persons shall be placed with the remainder of my estate."
The questions are:
First. Whether the legacy to Mrs. Thayer must abate prorata with the other legacies, or whether the sum of $1,000 shall be set aside for her, regardless of the other legatees?
Second. Whether the other legacies specified in said will shall abate pro rata?
Third. What shall be done with the legacy bequeathed to Mrs. Mary Cobb, who died before the testatrix?
As to the first question, the general rule was stated inRichardson v. Bowen,
Second. As we see nothing in the will to evince an intention to prefer any of the pecuniary legacies, all are subject to abatement under the rule above stated.
Third. The seventh clause adds lapsed legacies to the residue, but the result would be the same without this provision in the will. Peckham v. Newton,