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75 Mass. 239

Howard v. Bryant

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided October 15, 1857

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1857-10-15

Action of contract to recover a legacy given to the plaintiff, when sole, by her father’s will, in these terms: “ I give to my daughter Sarah W. Bryant one hundred and fifty dollars, seventy five dollars to be paid to her by my son Ebenezer Bryant when he arrives to the age of twenty two years, and seventy five dollars more at the decease of my said wife.” The defendant was named in the will as principal devisee and residuary legatee, subject to a life estate in the…

Decided 1857-10-15

Metcalf, J.

¶1The legacy given to the plaintiff by her father did not, on her marriage, vest absolutely in her husband. It was a chose in action which survived to her on his death, unless he had reduced it to possession, or released it, or had made a valid assignment of it, or had, in some other way, legally barred her right to it. And any lawful exercise of an act of ownership, by a husband, over his wife’s chose in action, by which he appropriates it to his sole use, is such a reduction of it to possession as bars her right of survivorship. In this case, the legal effect of the facts is, that the plaintiff’s husband received the amount of her legacy, by applying it towards payment for the land which he purchased of her father’s residuary devisee, and in which she became entitled to dower.

¶2Plaintiff nonsuit

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