The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1890-11-19

Brehend in reasonable manner the
nature of the affair in which he partici
pated F" that understand 10 be law.
You must bear, Gentlemen, with what
appears TO be some tediousness and
some repetition, these instructions on
two sides which are in part concurrent.
and when | come To speak on my own
account shall say some things myself.
The second Is repetition: "Or, in
other words. were his mind and memory
sufficiently sound to enable him to know
and TO understand the business in which
he was engaged at the time"
The third | shall cover completely
after this. 1t is, eff You shall find that
ut the time he executed the will he
knew what he was doing, and To whom he
was giving his property, 1t is sufficient"
| don't know of anything that | shall
say hereafter which will qualify that; it
is a brief statement of what the law
requires.
Ill YOU find that the deceased was
able to transact the ordinary affairs OF life,
having a soundness OF mind, you may
find that he was competent to execute u
valid will" That is the fourth.
The fifth does not seem necessary:
Because a person is spendtlirift or is
under guardianship as sperdthrift,"
which was not this case-I will give il if
You think it is necessary, gentlemen
'he is not therefore incapacitated 10
make a will"
"A man may have perfect capacity TO
dispose of his property by will and yet
be very inadequate TO the management
OF other business, AS for instance to make
contracts for the purchase or sale of
property" There is authority for that.
A man may not have sufficient strength
OF memory and vigor of intellect to make
and to digest all the parts of 81 contract
and yet be competent to direct the dis
tribution of his property by will; that
is law as | understand it. Now there is
another one as to the date of the will
which L shall comment upon fully here
after; il do not, please remind me of il.
The law, Gentlemen, as you may have
gathered from many of the instructions
given to you as law, is very tender i'm
regard TO the power OF men and women
to dispose of their property by will, To
give it the direction that il shall take
after their death. There is no instru-
ment which is so simple or may be
so simple as a will. In deciding a piece
OF real estate it may require more par
ticularity Of description and OF the
price, and a variety of other matters,
than it would to convey in sentence
many parcels of real estate, and besides
real estate personal property and all that
man has. 1t can be done, perhaps,
in fewer words than he can make con-
veyance or lease The law gives this
power to the man down to the last years
OF old age and the last stage of feeble
ness, provided he still retains what is
considered sufficient intelligence The
writer OF will often takes the words
whispered in feebleness with his ear ut
the mouth of the almost dying man,
takes his instructions and indtes his
will, and he may sign it in the last stages
of ieebleness. | have seen, and it is
pathetic to see the signatures upon some
wills here made by business men of the
community who in their lives were the
equals OF any in intelligence and the
habit of writing, the poor scrawl they
made when at last they signed their
names to their last will and testament.
Beyond that, If he cannot sign his name,
1t is our statute law, his name car be
signed by some other person in his
presence and by his express direction.
That would apply also to a person who
could not write; Mrs. Roy is not in
capacitated from making will if she can
get some person to write her name
| have said in the course OF this trial
as TO the question whether man il COM
petent to make a will, that il should be
considered the kind OF will he might
make or might not make; and | said a
man might make a simple will who
could not give the instructions, and
therefore intelligently devise very
complicated will, will burdened with
trusts and conditions and forfeitures !;
you understand he very well might do
the one and not the other. The will Of
| the father of John Robinson is vastly
more complicated than this will-you
have heard part OF it; and this case
| might have another aspect If the will of
| John Robinson had been drawn by Mr..
| Thurston as unanimously and with al
much variety as that OF the old gentle
man, James Robinson. Now, as | have
| said before, what is the will in this case
1t was will simply providing for his
wife, the partner of his life; it could
! have been written in fewer words; it is
not extended, but it could have been
| written in much fewer words and with
| absolute simplicity, and yet it would
! have conveyed the estate. 1t could
| have been written i'm three lines; never
| theless, it was better that person I'M
dsrstanding the drafting OF wills should
put in some provisions which perhaps
John Robinson would not have put in if
he had written it, as, for instance, here
| is the introduction: This is the last will
and testament Of me John n Robinson,
| of Homo ulu, Oahu, and then, first, |
, appoint my wife Caroline Johnson
| Robinson and Lorrin a. Thurston, of
said Honolulu, to be my executors; an
unskillful person might not have put
that in; but yet if he had written that he
gives and devses all his real and per-
! sonal estate which he possessed 10 his
| wife, that would have carried the core Of
it and would have been good in other
respects by that alone. So also the pro-
vision that his debts were to be first
paid; they would have been paid if he
had not provided for them, but it was
regular for the attorney to make it as he
did
Now, tlR testimony is, that John
Robinson had a purpose which he fol-
lowed persistently in the making OF his
will. 1t was not will that was begun
and ended on that 18th day OF February
in that sick room He went two OF
three times TO the house of Mr.. Thurston
to have a business interview with him
and he obtained it by Mr.. Thurston'
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