In re Anna S. Bradley's Will
| Decision Date | 22 June 1901 |
| Parties | IN RE ANNA S. BRADLEY'S WILL |
| Court | Vermont Supreme Court |
May Term, 1901.
APPEAL from a decree of the Probate Court construing the will of Anna S. Bradley and ordering distribution thereunder. Trial by court, Windsor County, December Term, 1900, Start, J presiding. Judgment was rendered pro forma affirming the decree of the Probate Court. The appellants excepted.
Judgment affirmed and ordered certified to the Probate Court.
William Batchelder and Henry F. Hollis for the appellants.
H G. Sargent and W. E. Johnson for the appellees.
Present TAFT, C. J., TYLER, MUNSON, WATSON and STAFFORD, JJ.
The testatrix, Anna S. Bradley, was the widow of Capt. Charles O. Bradley of the U.S. army. He died in Montana May 14, 1887. Mrs. Bradley died January 23, 1899, leaving the will in controversy which she made in December, 1891. The second clause is as follows:
"I will and bequeath to Eva Mabel Davis, Grace Leona Tuck and Laura Lillian Tuck, nieces of my late husband, Charles O. Bradley, and children of his sister, Eliza Tuck, and Frank Davis, all money on hand and all the bonds that were left to me by my said husband at the time of his decease. "
There were a few small bequests, about which there is no controversy, and the residue of the estate was given to the testatrix's lawful heirs who are the appellants. The legatees named in the second clause are the appellees. The will was duly probated and an administrator was appointed who settled his account, and the Probate Court in its decree of distribution ordered that the deposit of $ 1,302 in the White River Savings Bank in the name of the testatrix, and the Olmstead bond, then valued at $ 2,500, be paid to the appellees, from which order the nephews of the testatrix, who are her heirs-at-law, appealed to the County Court where the case was tried mainly upon evidence admitted upon pro forma rulings. It appeared without controversy that the testatrix left property, other than the two items decreed to the appellees, amounting to $ 5,355.51; also that her husband's life was insured for her benefit, and that after his death she received $ 5,000 on one policy, which was invested in the Olmstead bond, and $ 1,300 on another policy, which was invested in the Bates bond. She owned these bonds when she made her will, but the Bates bond was paid February, 1897, and she deposited the amount received for it to her credit in the savings bank, and it was one of the items decreed to the appellees who claim that the Olmstead bond, and the savings bank deposit as proceeds of the Bates bond, are the property bequeathed to them in the second clause of the will.
I. The appellants contend that the two items named in the decree do not answer the description of the money and bonds bequeathed to the appellees; that the two bonds and the funds with which they were purchased were never the property of Capt. Bradley; that as the insurance policies were made payable to his wife upon his death the clause in question could not be construed to include the proceeds of the policies; that it was incompetent to show by parol evidence of her declarations made at the time the will was executed that these were the bonds that she intended should pass under that clause, and that it was incumbent upon the appellees to show by other evidence than the testatrix's declarations that her husband did not in fact have bonds of his own upon which this bequest could operate.
The appellees contend that there are facts in the case sufficient to establish their claim without proof of the testatrix's declarations. It did appear that Capt. Bradley left a will bequeathing to his wife whatever property he had; that the will was proved and an administrator was appointed who filed a bond in the Probate Court which required him to return an inventory; that he published notice of his appointment, but returned no inventory and did nothing further about settling the estate. Mrs. Bradley collected $ 98 back pay due her husband, and she received $ 20 a month pension from the time of his death. Her...
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