Page v. Eldredge Pub. Library Ass'n
| Decision Date | 28 July 1899 |
| Parties | PAGE v. ELDREDGE PUBLIC LIBRARY ASS'N et al. |
| Court | New Hampshire Supreme Court |
Bill by one Page, administrator, against the Eldredge Public Library Association and another, for the construction of the wills of Mary E. and Marcellus Eldredge. Case discharged.
Bill in equity praying for the construction of the wills of Mary E. and Marcellus Eldredge. Mary E., the wife of Marcellus, was unconscious at the time of her husband's death, and died in a few hours thereafter, without regaining consciousness. They left no children. Mary E. left a will giving her whole property to Marcellus. Marcellus left a will, the second clause of which reads as follows: "To my said wife, Mary E. Eldredge, I give and bequeath stocks, bonds, notes, and other securities such as she may select and choose out of and from my estate at my decease of the par or face value of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000), regardless of their market value; and the legacies hereinafter mentioned and given are not to be paid until this bequest to my said wife is fully satisfied and paid." By the first clause of his will he gave his wife, and by the fifth clause his brother, each a house, with all its furniture. By the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh clauses he gave various persons legacies amounting in the aggregate to $100,000. In the twelfth clause he provided that if his estate, other than the houses and their contents given to his wife and brother and the legacy given to his wife in the second clause, should not be sufficient to pay his debts and general legacies in full, then these legacies should be paid pro rata. By the thirteenth clause he made his wife residuary legatee, and by the fourteenth the executrix of his will. Marcellus' estate is not sufficient, after taking out the most valuable securities of which he died possessed, of the face or par value of $150,000, to pay his debts and general legacies in full.
Page & Bartlett, for plaintiff.
John S. H. Prink, for defendants Chase Home and others. Dickson & Knowles, for defendants Susan A. Bryam and others.
Herbert A. Chapin, for defendants Antoinette H. Hamblln and others.
The legacy which Mary E. gave to her husband lapsed. It is a general rule that a legacy is extinguished by the death of the legatee in the lifetime of the testator, and no facts appear which make this case an exception. The devises of real and bequests of personal estate which Marcellus made his wife and brother in the first and fifth clauses of his will are specific, and it is the general rule that a specific bequest or devise is not liable to contribute to make up deficiencies in the assets available to pay general legacies. In this case the will not only does not charge them with the payment of these legacies, but expressly exempts them...
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