The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-05
MAINE.
The Great PFsble Will Case Disposed OF
-SI,0OO,OOO IavoIvsd.

A correspondent of the Boston Advertiser
writes as follows:-
held at Portland this month. In the absence of
Ghlef Justice Appleton, Judge Kent presldes.
The most interesting case disposed of thus far
was the Preble will case, in which the disposi-
tion OF property to the amount of nearly
81, 1000, 900 was involved. The widow of Com
modoTe Preble left at her decease In 1948,
several pieces of real estate in and about the
city, which at that time were not considered
exceedingly valuable, but have since become So
BY Mr. Preble's will this property was to be
held in trust for twenty years, by three trustees
for the benefit of her grandson and two grand
daughters. No property was to be sold or
otherwise disposed OF during that time. AT the
end OF the twenty years the trustees were TO
cause the shares of the grand-daughters, or
use and benefit, as not to be subject to the con-
troll of their, or either of their husbands
MIS-. Prebles will was made in 1S48. Up TO
1874, the provisions of the common law relative
to the rights of married women to hold property
were ope raive in this State. By the statute of
lS44. chapter III, entitled au act to secure to
married women their lights in property, the
Legislature provided that any married woman
may become seized or possessed Of any property,
real or personal, in her own name, and as of her
own property, and that when a woman married
she should continue to hold such property, not
Wthstandlng her coverture, exempt from any
liability for the debts and contracts of her hus-
band. In l647, this act was amended by striking
out the proviso in the first section, and adding
contracts of her husband.n Down to the de.
livery of the decision of the Court in the case of
Southard VS.. Palmer, in 1868, there was some
doubt as to the full meaning and extent of the
statute. Mrs. Preble had made her will in 1s4S
and had died in 1851. The surviving trustee
N. f. Deering, of this city, became desirous OF
having this point settled as 10 whether the trust
must not still be continued after the twenty
years, in order to guard against the possibility
OF allowing the husbands of the grand-daughters
to obtain control of the property. Tue statutes
of Maine allow an administrator or executor to
bring bill in equity against the heirs as nom-
nal respondents to obtain the proper construc-
tion of the disputed points of will. This suit
was brought under that statute, and was argued
this term before the full bench by Nathan Webb
Esq, for the trustee and j. ID. and F. Fessenden
for the heirs. The decision of the Court has not
yet been printed, but the substance of it is that
the trust term abated at the end of twenty
years, and that each of the three grand. chill
dren now take a fee simple in common and
undivided ia the real estate and the trustee
is further directed by the Court, after settling
his final account, to distribute the personal
property equally among the grandchildren.
The point established by this important de-
cision is that in Maine under the present
statutes, the rights of married women to hold
property are regarded in the same light as SINH
lar rights of men. This decision thus sets free
from the hands of the trustee nearly q million
dollars worth of property.