¶1The will gives to the widow, Almira Moore, “ full power and authority to sell any part or all of either the real or personal estate whenever she may think it expedient.” This is a personal confidence. The power is to be exercised by Almira Moore; not by the executrix, nor by any trustee, whether appointed by this court or the probate court. The discretion given to her is unlimited. Although her right in the proceeds is only a life interest, and what may remain at her decease is given to the daughter of the testator; yet the authority of the widow to consume the principal for her support, if the income should be insufficient, is limited only by the measure of “ so much of the principal as she may think necessary.” Her right to sell the real estate is not contingent upon the insufficiency of the income and if it were, she is herself the sole judge of the necessity The case is not one which requires or warrants the interference of the court, either to prevent a sale or for the appointment of a trustee. Bill dismissed.
100 Mass. 335
Dodge v. Moore
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Decided November 15, 1868
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1868-11-15
Bill in equity filed March 28, 1868, by Charlotte Maria, daughter of Benjamin Moore who died September 20,1867, and Joseph F. Dodge, her husband, to restrain Almira Moore, the widow of the deceased, from proceeding to sell at public auction, as she had advertised to do on March 31,1868, all his estate, both real and personal, valued in the inventory at respectively $3900 and $615.25, which she claimed a right so to sell under the provisions of his will, all but the formal…
Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know
Decided 1868-11-15
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently November 1940
13 state decisions
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.
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