American Bible Society v. Price

• Decision Date: 07 January 1884
• Citation: 110 U.S. 61,28 L.Ed. 70,3 S.Ct. 440
• Parties: AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY and another v. PRICE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

110 U.S. 61

3 S.Ct. 440

28 L.Ed. 70

AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY and another v. PRICE.

January 7, 1884.

Geo. P. Strong, for appellants.

Gustavus Koerner, for appellee.

WAITE, C. J.

This is an appeal from an order remanding a cause which has been removed from a state court. The case is as follows: Isaac Foreman, a citizen of Illinois, died on the twenty-eighth of October, 1878, leaving a will by which, after devising certain property to his wife, Rebecca Foreman, for life, he appointed John J. Thomas, Frederick H. Pieper, and Theophilus Harrison, all cit- izens of Illinois, his executors. After directing his executors to convert all his property into money, he proceeded as follows:

'(4) After the payment of all my just debts, I give and bequeath to my said executors the sum of two thousand dollars ($2,000) in trust for the use and benefit of my daughter, Mary Price, during her natural life. I desire my said executors to safely loan on interest said sum of money, and pay to my said daughter the interest or profits thereof annually during her life, and after her death the proceeds or interest thereof to be paid annually f r the maintenance and education of her child or children, and such principal sum to be paid to her child or children when he, she, or they become of age. And should my said daughter die leaving no child or children, or should all of them die before coming of age, then the said sum of two thousand dollars shall be payable by my said executors, two-thirds thereof to the American Bible Society, and one-third thereof to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of America.'

All the residue of the proceeds of his property were to be paid over to the two societies in the same proportions.

This suit was begun by Mary Price, a citizen of Illinois, the daughter, on the nineteenth of November, 1878, to set aside the will on the ground that the testator was of unsound mind when it was made. The widow, the executors, and the two societies were all made defendants. A joint answer was filed by all the defendants on the fourteenth of January, 1879. On the twenty-first of September, 1880, the widow filed a separate answer, in which she set forth her election to renounce the will, and take her dower and legal share of the estate of her husband. She therefore disclaimed all interest in the controversy. Thereupon the two societies filed a petition for the removal of the suit to the circuit court of the United States...