Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-12-24
Curious Wills.

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Ineligible wills is allowed by English law
to an extent that is not easily detensib!e
Granting that testator may dispose as he
pleases within wide limits of his property
1t might at least be required that he should
express his pleasure in unambiguous terms.
If this be equivalent to saying that every
testator ought to submit his will to an Of
fetal or private lawyer, it is certainly not
the lawyers who would chiefly benefit by
the suggestion. The Interpretation of OBJ
scure wills furnishes daily business to the
Court of Chancery, where Judge and a
half dozen counsel may be heard explain
ing one mans nonsense by another mans
nonsense, or, in other words, endeavoring
to construe will by the light or darkness
of decided cases. Where is the pale and
melancholy ghost of the testator in the
cause? Does he revisit earth to hear an
order made for costs of all parties to be
paid out of his estate If he is doomed
to expiate his other sins equally with that
of making his own will, then indeed his
term of purgatory suffering must be end
less. We may pity those who in these
dull November days are condemned to
hover among the back benches OF Court
of Equity, and witness the dissipation of
the estate which had been 50 painfully &C
cumulated. The fog which pervades the
court is only too exactly typical of the
mental confusion produced by arguments
upon the construction OF a will and after
all the elaborate attempts Of learned
writer's to educe order out of chaos, it
comes nearly to this, that an astute Judge
may find plausible reasons for any conclu-
sion that he thinks proper to adopt An
argument in Westminster Hall on ques-
ton of this kind assumes almost sport
ing character, because there are more
Judges and less knowledge Of testamentary
law than exists at Lincoln's Inn, and
therefore the number of possible views
that may be taken of the case is larger.
Conditions in restraint Of marriage have
been the cause of perpetual litigation, and
learned writer honestly contesses that
his readers may be likely to receive with
some degree of jealousy his plan for " rec
ouciling " the reported cases on this sub
ect, since an eminent Judge has expressed
the opinion that they are so contradictory
as to Justify the Court in coming to any
decision it might think proper. Accord
ing to this writer, conditions precedent
to marry with consent, unaccompanied by
bequest over in default, will be held IN
terrorem," unless in certain cases which
he enumerates. As ladies nre interested
in this branch Of law, it should be ex-
planned that a condition precedent is con-
dition that precedes the vesting of an es-
tate, while condition subsequent is one
of which the non-performance divests it
and a condition IN terror EN- is sort OF
legal scare-crow, or dog that can bark
but cannot bite. In order to explain this
principle by an example, We will refer to
a case where testator inserted In his Will
a proviso that, if either his wife or daugh-
ter should marry Scotchman, then his
wife or daughter so marrying should for
felt all benefit under his will, and the es-
tates given to such, MS wife or daughter
as should so marry, should descend to such
nersou or persons as would be entitled un-
der his will in the same manner as it his
wife and daughter were dead. 1t was
held by the Court of Kings Bench that
such partial restraint of marriage was
legal; and that the daughter having, while
under age, married Scotchman, and died
leaving a son, such a son could not in
herlt but that the Limitation over the
testator's wife being also dead) to the two
children of the testator's nephew took ef-
feet Immediately on such marriage. Il
was argued on the one side that, thoug h by
the civil and canon laws restraints of mar
riage are in general discouraged and held
void, vet even these laws admit Of excep'
tions to the general rule. as, for instance
if the condition be only temporary, as not
to marry before the age of twenty; or
it only exclude marriage with particular
persons, as a widow, or certain persol
by name, or in a particular place, as IL
York. But restraints of marriage have
always been admitted by the law of Eng
land in devises Of real estate, and a for
Itiori where there is a devise over, as II
this case,