The Savannah tribune. [volume] (Savannah [Ga.]) 1876-1960, 1888-03-17
WILL BREAKERS.
FIERCE LEGAL STRUGGLES FOR
DEAD MEMS WEALTH.
Lawyers Who Feed Fat on Big
Estates in Litigation - Divert
ing Millions From the Pur-
poses Its Owners Intended.

poses Its Owners Intended.
A New York correspondent, writing
/ 10 the Pittsburgh Dispatch, says; Sur
rogate Rollins had 334 wills contested
before him in his three years term. He
admitted all but fifty of them. 1t would
oelmpossible to estimate the amount of
money Involved in these contests, but
$500, 600, 600 would not over estimate it,
for they include the estate of Samuel j.
Tilden, the $40, 900, 600 of James Hokes,
the $ll 900, 900 of Jesse Hoyt, the 81, :
5000, 600 of Louis Hamersly, the S., 600, =
009 of Sarah Burr. and the SD, 600, 600 of
Paran Steven, besides the great fortunes
OF A. T. Stewart and his widow
Twenty five men are paid by the city to
look after the proper distribution of
dead mems estates, according to their
wishes, but Surrogate Rollins said there
ought to be 100 employed in the work,
growing greater every day.
Scarcely half dozen wealthy men, or
women either, for that matter, have died
! here in the past ten years without leav
ing legacy of endless litigation among
their heirs. The late William II. Van
derbilt and Miss Catherine Wolfe are the
only exceptions recall at present. Even
Miss Wolfe, though, had to make the
terms of her will in such explicit and
ironclad terms that it was plain that she
feared the humiliation of a contest be-
fore the Surrogate. In fact it has grown
to be the prerogative of kinship to grab
for other peoples money, and the fimsest
prctext serves the purpose, even if it only
results in bagglng few thousands for
hush money and counsel fees.
What a revelation there would be for
the rich men of the land if they could
come back to earth and listen to the fight
over the results of their toll Here's A.
I. Stewart, the greatest dry goods mer-
chant this city ever saw, pictured as
mentally incapable of disposing of the
millions he had gathered; his widow is
in her grave less than year before two
dozen heirs are pounding on the doors of
the law courts to upset her requests;
Jesse Hoyt's $11, 600, 600 have opened
the doors of his family closet, and the
skeleton stalks out in the glare of
publicity; Sarah Burr died four wears
ago, but her 50, GOO 600 were made the
oil. ect of bitter litigation, and her ec-
centricties paraded before the world.
Samuel J. Tilden, keen lawyer as he
was, made a will thai his nephews are
determined to break, and his great
scheme for q free public library here is
thus postponed, and perhaps batlled.
The Paran Stevens case was only settled
permanently short while ago after Is
years of litigation and personal abuse of
the worst sort from the widow to her SON
in-law, and vice versa. Paran Stevens
was one of our great Bonifaces, and his
estate still holds an interest in the Fifth
Avenue and Victoria Hotels here and
similar property in Boston He died in
1869, leaving his widow, a married
daughter, and son-in-law to manage his
estate and divide the property among
about twenty heirs. Mrs. Stevens and
her son-in-law never did get on together,
and the breach widencd after the old
man died Early in 1912 she denounced
him and began suit TO have him removed
as executor. Mrs. Stevens, it will be
remembered, created sensation at New
port last summer by entertaining the
Duke of Marlborough. Her fight tooust
ANt SOl-iu INV Ntob N~bb,pOV uJ sCdSl.
Who of those who knew Daniel II.
Lyddy would have thought that he
would be put forward by his brothers
after death as a subject of undue intiu-
ence3 He was as sane as any many that
ever lived, and yet he was hardly in his
grave before his brothers the ones who
made themselves notorious by accepting
$12, 900 from sharp declared war upon
his widow for his estate. The ludicrous
part OF the story is that Liddy hadn't a
penny until he married Madame Con
molly, the famous dressmaker here, who
not only owned all the Long Branch
property but had good sized bank ac-
count as we'll Of course that wealth
greatly increased under Mr.. Liddy's
shrewd management, but where would
he have been if he had not married
thousands Now his brothers have be
gun a fight to keep those thousands on
their side of the house, and they declare
the win bogus that gives back to the
widow the property that was originally
hers