Mayo v. Whedon
Mayo v. Whedon
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
We are invited to an examination of what constitutes specific, general, and demonstrative legacies; hut we must decline, because the doctrine of such legacies is resorted to only where the meaning of the testator is obscure, and that is not the, case here. If words taken according to their plain significance
Error is alleged because the executors in distributing the legacies gave to some of the legatees who were entitled to bonds of a given face value certain bonds which were worth $40 each more than their face value according to the official appraisement. It is' a matter of common knowledge, that the market value of bonds fluctuate, and therefore not much weight is to be
We think the judgment of the lower court is right, and it is therefore affirmed at the costs of the appellants. A.firmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MAYO v. WHEDON
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Wills; Ambiguity; “Face Value;” Distribution; Executors and Administrators. 1. Rules of construction determining what constitutes specific, general, and demonstrative legacies are resorted to only where the meaning of the testator is obscure. The necessity for -judicial construction never arises until uncertainty is encountered. 2. The words, “face value,” in a will which bequeathes to a legatee “one railroad bond of the face value of $1,000,” are not ambiguous. Face value expresses the idea of denomination; the amount printed on the face of the bond referred to. 3. It is the duty of the court to give to the. words of a will their full natural meaning. (Citing Cru.it v. Oicen, 25 App. D. O. 514, affirmed in 203 U. S. 368; and Travers v. Reinhardt, 25 App. D. G. 567, affirmed in 205 U. S. 423.) 4. Where a testatrix bequeathes to each of a number of legatees one or more bonds “of the face value of $1,000,” and a few of (lie numerous bonds of the estate are appraised at more than their face value, while the others are appraised at less than their face value, the matter of the distribution of the bonds among the legatees is discretionary with the executor of the will; and, in the absence of a showing of an abuse of such discretion, a legatee, receiving bonds appraised at less than their face value lias no legal ground of complaint.