The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1911-09-28
BERNHEInER WILL CASE.
Suit Filed. and Case Promises TO
be Holly Contested.

The most sensational and move
will contest suit for years began il
the chancery court at Port Gibson,
Claiborne county, yesterday morn.
ing, when the law firm of Hirsch,
Dent & Landau, of this city, who
have associated with them ]. McC,
Martin and Robert Anderson, ol
Port Gibson, filed the bin opening
up the grounds for the contest oi
the Bernheimer will. The litiga.
ton will involve eventual distribu.
ton of an estate valued at a mil.
lion dollars, part of which has been
dispersed, so It is learned, and for
which these attorneys pray Chan
cellor Hicks for immediate relief,
and ask that an administrators be
named at once to have charge OF
the estate. The unusual feature
primarily in the case is that the
contest is all in the family. Jacob
Bernheimer, known throughout the
South as one of the leading Jewish
citizens, and capitalist, died the
past summer at Atlantic City, hay-
ing a complication of diseases. BY
some strange condition, upon
which the fine points of this con.
test will be centered, the deceased,
out of the vast estate, left only the
small pittance of $4,000 to Marcus
Bernheimer of St. Louis, a BROTH
er, and the magnificent sum of a
dollar each to the children of his
sister, Mrs. Alice Lowenstein, of
Mobile, the fortune then being di-
vided between Sidney Bernheimer
of New York and Mrs. Carrie
Scharf of St. Louis.
The will of the late Jacob Bern
heimer was made in Port Gibson
last March, the contestees alleging
that when Jacob Bernheimer was
afflicted with diseases of a deadly
character, wherefore they set ont
that the document IS impaired. and
that the maker Of the viii did so
when in a weakened state of mind
and body. and subject to undue
influences of Mrs. Scharff, of ST.
Louis, and Sidney Bernheimef, of
New York. The charge is openly
made that a fraud was, therefore,
practiced, and the alleged last will
and testament is rendered void.
Contestants further allege that
the deceased left his brother, Sid
ney Bernheimer, and sister, Mrs.
Scharf, as executor and executrix,
respectively, without bond. These
persons at once proceeded IN ex
parte manner, asking for and filing
an inventory of the estate, and for
the management of same. The
bill further contains the charge
that Sidney Bernheimer exercised
such undue influence over the de-
ceased that he secured his writing
in the said will the recognition of
an alleged debt to him, the said
Sidney Bernheimer, when in fact,
it is claimed, 40 debt was owed
him whatever.
The contestants further charge
that said administrators of the es-
tate have undertaken to illegally
pay debts. and obtained an order
reducing the bond required of them
as a PREREQUISITE of their admins
tration of the estate.
The court is asked for an imme-
diate hearing, contestants claiming
that they are entitled to have an
issue of devisavit vel non submit.
ted for jury to determine whether
said will is the last instrument of
said deceased, and whether said
document was executed at time
when the said Jacob Bernheimer
was mentally incapacitated, and
under absolute and undue control
OF Sidney Bernheimer and Mrs.
ScharH. In addition, q temporary
administrator is asked for at once.
-Vicksburg Herald.
A dispatch to the Times.Demo'
crat about the contest says:
"Among the bequests in the will
lis one to the Chamberlain. Hunt
Academy of Port Gibson. The con
testants set forth that they desir'
in no way to invoIve or affect b.
their suit what is left to this insti