The San Francisco call., 1896-01-03
THE TEACHERS OPEN FIRE
Delmas and Shortridge Have
Filed a Contest to the
Fair Will.
THE PENSION FUND BEQUEST.
1t Is Alleged That the Pencil Will Is
Genuine and RevokeS All
Former TeStamentS.
THE PENSION FUND BEQUEsT.

The Board ofSchoolteaehers' Retirement
Fund Commissioners is determined to be-
come the possessor of the $4,000 be-
queathed to that body in what is alleged
to be the last will and testament of James
g. Fair, dated Septemb ber "a, 1894, and left
in the custody of Mrs. Nettie Craven. The
document was written with lead pencil
and is known as the ''pencil will"
Late yesterday afternoon two contests to
the will dated September 81, 1894, were
filed, one over the signature of DR.. Marc
Levingston, the other over that of the
Board of Schoolteachers' Retirement Fund
Commissioners.
The attorneys acting for the contestants
are Delmas & Snortridge, J. D. Sullivan
and Lansing Miner.
Both contests are substantially the same,
differing only in few minor details. DR..
Lev1ngston, in the viii dated September
"a, is named with James S. Angus and
Thomas Crothers as an executor, and by
virtue OF his executorshlp be becomes an
interested party in the contest of the pre-
vlous will. Both contests submit the fol-
lowing as to their grounds of opposition TO
the probate OF the will dated Septem Der 81,
1894:
l. Said will was not executed by said James
G. Fair, nor was it attested by the subscribing
witnesses in this, to wit:
(G) 1t was not subscribed at the end thereof
by said James G. Fair himself; nor did any
person, in his presence and by his direction,
subscribe his name thereto.
(6) The subscription OF the name of James
u. Fair, at the end OF said will, was not made
In the presence OF the attesting witnesses, nor
was 1t acknowledged by said James 6. Fair to
thority.
lc) The said james G. Fair did not, at the
time OF subscribing or acknowledging the
same, declare to the attesting witnesses that
said instrument was his viii.
tdl said subscribing witnesses did not sign
their names at the end of said will at the tes-
tator's request nor in his presence.
2. Said viii dated September 2I, 1894, if ever
executed at all by SAID James G. Fair, was by
him thereafter revoked, forasmuch as, after
said execution, 10 wit: on the oath dav of
September, 1894, said James G. Fair, being
then OF sound mind did make and execute
writing declaring such revocation; said writ
Ing was dated at San Francisco the 24th day of
September, 1894, was signed by said James G..
Fair, contained the words 81 revoke all former
wills by me made,'' and was entirely written;
dated and signed by the hand of said James G.
Fair himself
Wherefore, contestant prays that said will,
dated September 21, 1894, be not admitted 10
probate, and requests that the issues OF fact
raised by this contest be tried by jury.
The bequest which appears in the will
dated September a, in which the school
teachers are interested and upon which
their contest is fled states:
Should an act be passed by the Legislature of
this State creating a pension fund for'aged
teachers, bequeath to said fund and direct
my executors 10 pay to said trustees of said
fund the sum of $4,000, to be used for the
pensioning of aged teachers-who have taught
twenty-five years or more in this State:
The State Legislature did, on March 26,
1895, create such a fund providing for the
appointment of a Board OF Schoolteachers'
Retirement Fund Commissioners. The
passage of this act was due, to a great ex-
tent to the efforts of Mrs. Nettie Craven,
and the teachers desire the bequest which
them.