Allen v. Allen

• Decision Date: 11 January 1875
• Citation: 117 Mass. 27
• Parties: John Allen v. Hannah C. Allen
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

117 Mass. 27

John Allen v. Hannah C. Allen

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

January 11, 1875

Argued November 18, 1874

Suffolk. Appeal from a decree of the Probate Court, made October 27, 1873, allowing $ 800 to Hannah C. Allen, the widow of Henry Allen upon her petition, dated January 10 1872, for an allowance out of the estate of her deceased husband. The appellant, an heir at law of Henry Allen filed the following reasons of appeal: "1. Hannah C. Allen, is not in need of said $ 800, or any other sum, as an allowance from the estate of said Henry Allen for necessaries, and is not entitled to the same by law. 2. It is more than two years since the death of said Henry Allen and the said Hannah C. is entitled to large sums of money out of the estate of said Henry, and has from time to time, since the death of said Henry, received from said estate large sums, more than sufficient for necessaries for herself. She has no children dependent on her for support, and she is not in circumstances contemplated by the law making provision for allowances to widows from the estates of their deceased husbands, and said Hannah C. is not entitled to said allowance, or any other sum. 3. Said allowance of eight hundred dollars is excessive."

Hearing before Wells, J., who affirmed the decree of the Probate Court, and, on an appeal being taken to the full court, made for the purposes of the hearing on the appeal, a report of the facts in substance as follows:

Henry Allen died October 1, 1871; and left five children, the children of a former wife. His widow and family remained in the house left by him from the time of his death until about the middle of the December following, and the expenses were paid by the administrator from the estate. About the middle of December, 1871, at the request of the widow, the family broke up housekeeping, and Hannah C. boarded from that time till the present. The administrator was appointed October 11 1871, and he has furnished the widow, from time to time, with all the money she has desired since the husband's death and charged the same to her distributive share of the estate. The appraised value of furniture belonging to the estate, including pictures, crockery, linen, books and household goods generally, was about $ 1650, and the entire personal estate, after payment of debts, would probably be about $ 9000. The real estate was appraised at $ 13,000, in which the widow had dower; and within one year after the death of the husband, the larger part of it had been sold for $ 14,500, and the income of one third of that sum had been paid to the widow regularly since that time. There is no memorandum in the registry of probate as to the time of filing the petition of the widow, and there was no evidence at the hearing as to the time when it was filed in fact.

Affirmed, with costs.

W. A. Herrick, for the appellant.

C. G. Thomas, for the appellee.

Gray, C. J. Wells & Devens, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Gray, C. J.

It is well settled in this Commonwealth that the allowance to be made by the Probate Court to a widow out of the estate of her husband is to be limited to what is reasonably necessary for her support for a moderate period after his death. Rev. Sts c. 65, § 4, and note of commissioners. Gen. Sts. c. 96, § 5. Adams v. Adams, 10 Met. 170. Drew v. Gordon, 13 Allen 120. But there is nothing to show that this rule was transcended in the present case. There is no evidence as to the time of the filing of the widow's application, or the cause of the delay of the action of the Probate Court thereon. And nothing appears, upon the report before us, as to the age or state of health of the widow or the mode of life to which she had...