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58 N.H. 511

Brown v. Bartlett

Supreme Court of New Hampshire

Decided March 5, 1879

Supreme Court of New Hampshire · decided 1879-03-05

Bill in Equity, against trustees appointed under the will of the plaintiff’s father.

Relies on Rice v. Boston Port & Seaman's Aid Society · Houghton v. Pattee · Morse v. Morse

Cited in Bouvier (1914)’s definition of “Intention”

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-03-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently July 1987 · most notably Edes v. Boardman (1879), Edgerly v. Barker (1891)

25 state decisions

110187918801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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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Doe, C. J.

¶1 The interpretation of the will is the ascertainment of the testator’s intention ; and the question of intention is ordinarily determined as a question of fact, by the natural weight of competent evidence, and not by artificial rules of interpretation. Rice v. Society, 56 N. H. 191, 197, 198, 203; Houghton v. Pattee, 58 N. H. 326; Morse v. Morse, 58 N. H. 391. Upon all the competent evidence (which it is not necessary to state), the question, whether the testator intended the real estate of which he gave the plaintiff the income for life should include the testator’s interest in the land bonded to J. M. P., is a very doubtful one: but we are inclined to think it should be answered in the affirmative. .

¶2 Case discharged.

Stanley and Smith, JJ., did not sit.
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