Emernecker's Estate
Emernecker's Estate
Opinion of the Court
This case affords an illustration that may almost be called pathetic, of the persistency of popular error. The notion that to disinherit the heir he must be “ cut off with a shilling ” (for the probable origin of which see Newlin’s Estate, 209 Pa. 456), started more than 300 years ago, never was the law either in England or Pennsylvania, and yet survives with such potency as to lead to results apparently as unjust as they were unintended.
The undisputed facts of this case do not admit of any question as to the legal result, however much we may be impressed that the testatrix’s act was induced by an erroneous belief as to the law. She intentionally destroyed the will, and declared she had done so with intent to mhke another. She knew what she was doing and the effect of it, and she did it animo revocandi, with intent to produce that effect. Her reasons were not matter of inquiry for the court. "Whether, if she had felt sure that the will already executed would accomplish what she wanted to do she would have changed it, we may specu
It seems to be a hard case, but there is no remedy without making the bad law which such cases are said to invite.
Decree affirmed.
Reference
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Will — Destruction of will — Cutting off children. Where a woman executes a will in favor of a granddaughter, but subsequently destroys the paper as the result of groundless apprehension on her part that it would not be effectual unless it contained some provision in favor of her children, and at the same time declares her intention to make a similar will with a gift to her children of $1.00 each, but she died before such a will is made, a copy of the will destroyed cannot be probated.