Drake v. True

• Decision Date: 01 December 1903
• Citation: 72 N.H. 323,56 A. 749
• Parties: DRAKE v. TRUE et al.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

56 A. 749

72 N.H. 323

DRAKE

v. TRUE et al.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Rockingham.

Dec. 1, 1903.

Bill by Clifford S. Drake, administrator of the estate of Sarah M. Sanborn, deceased, against Mary A. True and others, for construction of the will. Pacts found, and case transferred from the superior court Case discharged.

The will is dated November 9, 1892, and there are two codicils, dated, respectively, November 20, 1893, and June 17, 1896. The testatrix died October 27, 1902. At the date of the will, and prior to March, 1899, she owned 20 shares of the capital stock of the National Mechanics' & Traders' Bank of Portsmouth. In March, 1899, the bank reduced its capital stock one-half; each stockholder surrendering one-half of his or her shares, and receiving $100 for each share so surrendered. The testatrix surrendered 10 of her shares and received $1,000 for them. She owned the remaining 10 shares at the time of her death. By the third and fourth items of her will she gave to two of her nephews, each "ten shares in" said bank. They, or their representatives, and Mary A. True, the residuary legatee, are defendants. The testatrix was the widow of Jeremiah Sanborn, who died before the date of her will. In his lifetime he owned, and they occupied, and down to her death she continued to occupy, as their homestead, a dwelling house known as No. 3 Cass street, about 25 feet wide, standing upon the northerly side of a lot of land on the westerly side of Cass street, in Portsmouth, and fronting on said street, which lot was within a few inches of 100 feet wide, and ran back about 102 feet. That part of the lot not covered by the house was used for a garden, lawn, and orchard. The testatrix became the owner of this property after the death of her husband. The fence upon Cass street, in front of about 50 feet of the northerly part of the lot, where the house stood, was different from, and more expensive and elaborate than, the fence in front of the remainder of the lot, and prior to her death the testatrix had procured plans for the erection of another dwelling house upon the southerly part of the lot. By the eighteenth clause of the will, as modified by the third clause of the first codicil, the testatrix devised to the trustees of the Chase Home for Children of Portsmouth, N. H, the abovementioned dwelling house, as follows: "The dwelling-house and lot of land upon which it stands, known as the homestead of the late Jeremiah Sanborn, being No. 3 Cass...