31 N.Y.S. 519 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1894
The question raised by the pleadings in this action is whether the remainder bequeathed by the third clause to the Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indigent Females and to the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women is void under the sixth section of chapter 319, of the Laws of 1848, entitled “An act for the incorporation of benevolent, charitable, scientific and missionary societies,” which provides:
“Sec. 6. Any corporation formed under'this act shall be capable of taking, holding and receiving any property, real or personal, by virtue of any devise or bequest contained in any last will or testament of any person whatsoever, * * * and no such devise shall be valid in any will which shall not have been made and executed at least two months before the death of the testator.”
“An Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indigent Females in the City of New York” was incorporated by chapter 69 of the Laws of 1815, which provided that it “shall by that name and style be capable in law of purchasing, holding and conveying any estate, real or personal, for the use of said corporation: provided, that such estate shall never exceed in value one hundred thousand dollars nor be applied to any other purposes than those for which this incorporation is founded.” By the seventh section of this act it was provided that the corporation should continue until the last Thursday in November, 1830. By chapter 308, Laws 1830; chapter 257, Laws 1849; chapter 328, Laws 1868; and chapter 88, Laws 1889,— the act is continued in force until March, 1940. By chapter 382, Laws 1860; chapter 116, Laws 1878; and chapter 224, Laws 1885,— the corporation is “authorized to take, receive and hold any purchase, gift, devise or bequest, from any person or persons, estate, real, personal or mixed, to an amount not exceeding ten hundred thousand dollars.”
“Sec. 4. The said corporation are hereby authorized to take and hold by gift, purchase, devise or otherwise, subject to all provisions of existing laws in relation to devises by last will and testament * * * and shall be entitled to all the provisions and privileges of law of charitable institutions.”
In case a corporation is authorized by statute to take property by devise or bequest, “subject to all of the provisions of law relating to devises and bequests by last will and testament,” or “subject to the provisions of law relating to bequests and devises to religious societies,” the limitation imposed by section 6 of chapter 319 of the Laws of 1848 applies, and a devise or bequest to the corporation is invalid unless the will is executed two months before the death of the testator. Kerr v. Dougherty, 79 N. Y. 327; Stephenson v. Short, 92 N. Y. 433. In the case at bar it is conceded that the provision in the statute under w'hich the Presbyterian Home for Aged Women was incorporated—“subject to all provisions of existing laws in relation to devises by last will and testament”—brings devises to that corporation within section 6 of chapter 319 of the Laws of 1848, and that if the testatrix had devised real estate to the corporation, and had died within two months after the execution of the will, it would have been invalid. The bequest was upheld at special term upon the theory that, the word “bequest” not being used in the act, it was not the intention of the legislature to make bequests to this corporation subject to section 6 of chapter 319 of the Laws of 1848. By section 4 of chapter 413 of the Laws of 1869 the corporation is authorized to take property by “devise or otherwise.” The words “or otherwise” were construed at special term, and we think correctly, as authorizing the corporation to take property by bequest. Under that construction the corporation was authorized by the section to acquire property by devise or bequest; and it is declared in the same action that it “shall be entitled to all the provisions and privileges of law relating to charitable institutions.” Considering the purpose of the act, the object for which this corporation was incorporated, and reading the whole section together, it seems to us that it was the intention of the legislature not to give this corporation greater privileges than those generally given by the statutes to charitable institutions, but that it should have the