The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1912-05-09
COMMON SENSE
. APPLIED TO Will
End Is Where Testator Ended
It and Signed Name.
PREVIOUS RULINGS UPSET.
Now York Court Of Appeals Unani-
mousIy Upholds Document Which
Left Gum Manufacturers Estate to
Society For PsychicaI Research.

Society For PsychicaI Research.
| A decision which lawyers say is one
Of the most important in a will case in
years has been handed down by the
New York court Of appeals, which re-
verses the surrogate in Brooklyn and
| the appellate division and admits to
probate the will Of Warren B. Field, a
Brooklyn chewing gum manufacturer,
who died in 1910, leaving an estate ex-
ceeding $4,000 to the American So
ciety For Psychical Research. Probate
had been refused to the will in the
lower courts on the ground that the
testator had not signed his name sat
the end thereof as required by law.
Mr.. Field drew the will himself and
wrote it in longhand. He had OBJ
| tanned the printed form for a will, had
filed in the top, and in the blank space
provided for the provisions of the will
he wrote:
II direct that my estate be settled
as per the provisions Of the pages here
to attached and numbered from i to
| 6, inclusive, and this is to stand un-
challenged and unchanged in any form
provided I decease before a will is
drawn by my Attorney
Lower Courts Decision.
Upon the blank space the testator
pinned six sheets of paper numbered
| consecutively, the first Of which be-
gan as follows:
Jan. 10, 1910. Provisions which 1
desire made in my will and which,
should I pass away before will is
drawn, that I desire executed exactly
as though drawn in an ironclad legal
FORM
The bottom of the printed form was
filed out legally and correctly. but the
lower courts decided that the printed
form must be regarded as the first
page" of the will, and as the testator's
| name was signed at the bottom of it it
! was impossible to hold that the name
had been signed at the ''end'' of the
will.
Judge Vann, who wrote the unani-
nous opinion of the court of appeals,
said that when read the way the lower
courts would read it the instrument
does not read naturally and consecu-
lively and does not make sense. The
natural order of reading the paper is
subverted and in artificial order substi-
tuted not to aid but to overturn the
obvious Intention" Following the ar
gument advanced by counsel for the
American Society For Psychical Re-
search, in his brief Judge Vann re-
marked that the natural order of read
ing such a will is to read it just as a
card calendar would be read 'WhO
would read it any other way unless he
wished to destroy it as will?" asked
the court.
Judge Vann's Comment.
Judge Vann remarked that the posi-
lion of the lower courts was supported
to some extent by previous court of
appeals decisions, "for we have gone
far to protect testators from the dan
ger of imposition and fraud through
unauthorized additions and changes in
their wills" The court says that such
a danger does not exist in the present
case because the will is Photographic
and no sheet could be changed without
the cooperation of the testator The
court does not believe a search of the
decisions will show even three cases
of fraudulent additions to wills, land
it must be conceded that as to this sup
posed danger the remedy has proved
in practice far worse than the disease"
The court concludes that the evil of
fraudulent changes in wills is rare,
"while the evil Of defeating wills al
together in the manner suggested is
common; hence we think we have gone
far enough in the direction of rigid
construction, lest in the effort to pre-
vent wrong we do more harm than
good"