Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

1 Del. Ch. 342

Hilford v. Way

Court of Chancery of Delaware

Decided July 15, 1830

Court of Chancery of Delaware · decided 1830-07-15

Bill in Equity for raising a legacy out of real estate. —John Way, by his last will and testament,dated August 15th,1807, bequeathed sundry pecuniary legacies;-—among others, a legacy of $866.66 to his daughter Martha, and a legacy of $1000.00 to his daughter Lydia.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The words, ‘the remainder of any estate if any there be,’ manifestly import that the residuary devisees were only to take the residue of the estate after debts and legacies should be paid.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Ferris v. Ferris

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1830-07-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently June 1946

11 state decisions

40183018401850186018701880189019001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Johns, Sr., Chancellor :

¶1This is a general demurrer. If any part of the case made by the bill entitles the complainant to discovery, or to any relief, it is the general rule that the demurrer must be overruled and the defendant put to answer. 2 Madd. Ch. Pr. 283 : 1 Swanst. R. 304. The hill alleges that a balance of the legacy bequeathed to Lydia, late the wife of the complainant, remains unpaid, and that there is a deficiency of personal estate and of the rents of the real estate, exclusive of the rents not accounted for by Peter Mason, who for a time held the property and whose wife was Martha, the other legatee. Upon these facts it may be necessary to resort to a sale of the real estate, or of some part of it. The intent of the testator, to be collected from the whole will, connected with the circumstance that the personal estate was small, is clear, that the legacies were to be paid, if necessary, out of the real estate and so were a charge thereon. The words, *345“ the remainder of my estate if any there be,” manifestly import that the residuary devisees were only to take the residue of the estate after debts and legacies should be paid.

¶2Let the demurrer be overruled, and a rule to answer be entered.

/1/delch/342 · .json · Public domain