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249 Mass. 244

Small v. Bellamy

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1924-05-22

Relies on Chauncey v. Francis · Cavan v. Woodbury

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1924-05-22

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently June 1947

4 state decisions

20192419301940decided

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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Wait, J.

¶1The interpretation of the fifth clause in the

¶2will of Patience E. Snow is settled by the recent decision in Cavan v. Woodbury, 240 Mass. 125. In that case, after ample discussion of the authorities, language in substance the same as that used in the will before us was held to create an equitable estate for life. The administrator with the will annexed of the cestui que trust, in claiming an equitable fee, has relied chiefly upon Chauncey v. Francis, 181 Mass. 513. It is to be noted that in Chaunceyv. Francis, there were other gifts of equitable life estates with provisions for the remainders, and, the court says, “ there is no reason why she should not have used similar language for the disposition of the remainder of the trust fund created in the clause in question if she had intended that the interest in the whole of the fund should not pass to her nephew.”

¶3In the will before us there is no such indication of the *246purpose of the testatrix. The fact that, in the will of Patience E. Snow, there is a residuary clause, while there was none in the will interpreted by Cavanv. Woodbury, does not require a different result.

¶4The decision of the judge of the Probate Court was correct. The will created an equitable life estate; and the petitioner should now distribute the fund as directed in the decree.

¶5Decree affirmed.

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