Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-05-09
TEE DIsPos OF PROPERTY BE.
PORE AND AFTER DEATH.


FORE AND AFTER DEATH.
We have heretofore referred to q
new departure made by the Legislature
Of Michigan providing for an ante NOR
TEN probate Of wills.
The plan has attracted, as it deserves
to attract, very general attention
throughout the country, and the only
wonder is that it has not been thought
of before, ard that the millions Of
money that have been squandered and
the family feuds and bad blood that
have been stirred up in contesting wills,
had not found, at least, partial remedy
In this plan.
The Michigan plan provides that the
testator may go into court, giving no.
tice to all concerned, and have his own
will probated. Those who stand ready
to assail his sanity or set up the plea OF
undue influence must appear and con-
front the testator himself. The con-
tents of the will need not be divulged
nor become matter for the court to pass
on, but only the question of the capaci-
ty, ''sound mind and dispOsing MEM
ory" of the testator. The evidence upon
which dlsgruntled heirs generally
reach the conclusion that the maker
of . will was undoubtedly crazy or un-
der compulsion or undue influence Is
the manner in which he has disposed OF
his money or property when they find
themselves cut off with an unsatisfaeto-
~ portion. This insight into the men
tai condition of the testator is shut off
by the Michigan scheme, and waiting
expeetants will be tortured with doubt
as to whether their pspas and rich un-
cles are crazy till il will be too late to
set that fact up in defence of inherited
rights. 1t must prove perplexing law
to walters on the future for paternal
bounty.
To attack the mental soundness Of a
living rich testator would be extremely
hazardous, forshOuld the effort to show
ineapacity fail, it would at once afford
the occasion and the power to cut OF
with q shilling the ungrateful aud
offensive expectant. The law is in
tended to abate the evil of wasteful
legal strifes which often destroy the
peace of families and squander the pat
rimony, and in this respect it must be
approved.
| We can conceive of no valid reason
why q man who wants to make dis
position of his property to take effect
after his death may not have the valid
ity of the will legally established before
his death, in the same manner that the
validity of a deed is determined during
his lifetime.
Ifthere is any better way than this,
/ il Is that of making a distribution of his
estate with his own hands, during his
/ life.
But the difficulty about this is the
prevailing idiOsy ncrasy so prevalent
among men of large means either TO
cherish belief that they are never
going TO die, or otherwise to hold on to
their last dollar till death relaxes their
grasp.
There is no event more certain, and
none for which so little provision is
made, as death. A man in vigorous
health and buOyant spirits can't bear
I to think about will or that there is
any risk in delaying provision of this
kind until age indicates the end of his
career. But such men DO die. The
graveyards are full of them. And they
usually die with less notice than some
more feeble and with less apparent
prospect of life.
Then, if they do live to old age, with
the evidence continually present with
them that the day Of death cannot in
the nature of things be longer postpOn-
ed than Few months, or a few years
at most, still there comes with this adj
mOnitiOn no hint that they 10 longer
have use for their wealth; tnat now is
their opportunity to see it distributed
according to their own notions; they
cling to the money bags with as much
tenacity as though they needed them
to pay expenses across the dark val
ley" into which they are descending.
There are only here and there few in
telligent exceptions to this custom, and
those who make the exceptions have
proved the wisdom of their course.