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213 S.C. 15

48 S.E.2d 607

Dobson v. Smith

Supreme Court of South Carolina

Decided June 8, 1948

Supreme Court of South Carolina · decided 1948-06-08

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1948-06-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently November 2004

5 state decisions

301948195019601970198019902000decided

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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Baker, C.J.

¶1 (dissenting) : It is entirely possible, yea even probable, that the prevailing opinion in this case is technically sound in that it is in line with rules of construction heretofore followed, but these rules of construction, while ordinarily unbending, are yet purely arbitrary.

¶2 It being obvious that the intent of the testatrix was to, with her limited means, as nearly as possible, provide for her three unmarried daughters (the respondents) so long as they or any one of them remained unmarried; and the chances are -so remote as to be almost nil that a child will ever be born to any of them, I am unwilling to become a party to Procrusteanizing the rule of construction applied in the majority opinion.

¶3 Every practical consideration, and the equally established rule that the intent of the testatrix should prevail, clamors for. an affirmance of the decree of the learned Circuit Judge, and I direct that his said decree be reported as a part of this dissent.

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