The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1891-10-28
TILDEN HEIRS WIN.
They Will Get the Whole Fortune
of the Great Lawyer.
THE FIGHT FOR THE MILLIONS.
1t Was Made on the Clause Provid-
ing for the Library Scheme, Which
the Court Holds Was Not Explic-
lilly Enough Defined and Gave the
Executors Illegal Powers.


lilly Enough Defined and Gave the
Executors Illegal Powers.
ALBANY, N. Y, Oct. 2s.-The Tilden
will case was decided by the court of
appeals, the Judgment in favor of the
heirs being affirmed.
The opinion was written by Judge
Brown and concurred in by all of the
judges except Judge Bradley, who wrote
dissenting opinion. Judge Brown
found that the testator clearly intended
to create trust Of his residuary estate,
and simply invested the trustees until
they should invest themselves, in carry
ing out his purposes. No discretion was
left the trustees except as to the objects
of charity.
In the will there is not, as the law de-
mands, an alternative purpose. There is
a single scheme, gift to charitable uses,
and the suggestion of the Tilden trust
indicates no interest in the testator's
mind contrary to the intention to devote
the estate to charity.
Contrary to law and Usage.
The opinion contained the following:
I" here is no obligation to establish a
free library. They the trustees) can
select and endow any other educational
object. No claim can be made that such
a library if endowed should be in New
York. 1t could be located anywhere.
The trustees thus had power to do that
very thing which the law condemns,
viz, make a selection from an unde-
fined and unlimited class of objects.
THE power attempted to be vested in
the trustees cannot be enforced, and the
judgment is therefore affirmed"
MIR. Tildcn's Fortune.
The late Samuel Tilden left property
WORTH at very conservative estimate,
$8,000,000. Since 1886, when this in
ventory was made, the property is be-
lieved to have increased in value to $S,-
100000.
BY the decision of the court of appeals
the will is set aside so far as its clauses
relate to the establishing of free Ii
brary in New York. This sum of $S, ,000,-
900 will, therefore, be divided in accord
ance with the statutes that regulate the
distribution of intestate property.
Governor Tilden had one brother and
one sister. Mrs. Pelton, the sister, is
dead, but leaves one heir, Mrs. William
b. Hazard, whose husband is a clerk in
New York city. Mrs. Hazard will re-
ceiye the half that would have gone to-
her mother or say, 81, 900, 900.
Mr.. Henry A. Tilden, Governor Til
denis brother, had six children. These
or their descendants will come in for
equal shares of the remaining $4 ,000, 600
The Powers of Executors.
The provision which Governor Tilden
made for his relatives was $75, 1000
apiece for the nephews and $3.50 900
apiece for the nieces@ This was consid-
cred by them outrageously small, and
they one and all reJolvaA to contest the
will with view of breaking it.
The fight was on the thirty-fith sec
tion of the will, which provided for the
library scheme. This part by itself
would probably have stood, but fur
ther provision in the same clause en-
powered the executors, if for any reason
they did not think fit to apply the money
to the library scheme, to distribute it to
such charitable, educational or scientific
institutions as seemed best in their judg-
ment.
Neither in this country nor in Eng
land has the law eyeYallowed executors
to dispose of money as they saw fit, but
only for some specific purpose expressed
by the testator.
If the purpose of the testator was not
clear enough, in the Judgment of the
court, or if, his purpose being clear, the
object of his benefactions was not ex-
plicitly enough defined, the will has
always been broken, as has occurred in
the Yilden case