Opinion ID: 1479054
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The intent of the will.

Text: The will contained the usual provision directing the executors to pay all my just debts and funeral expenses. The testator's furniture and a legacy of $35,000 were bequeathed to the wife. A number of other monetary bequests were made to relatives and to certain charitable institutions, and the residue was bequeathed to one of the charitable institutions. The legacy of $35,000 to the wife was first to be paid in full, next the legacies to relatives, and next a certain legacy to one of the institutions. If the estate must pay the $8,000 debt the funds remaining will be insufficient to pay all of the legacies to the institutions and nothing will be payable to the residuary legatee. The widow contends that the will evidences an intent that she is to be exonerated from any liability for the debt. The argument runs as follows: (1) There is an express command to pay all just debts; (2) when the husband made his will the debt had not been created, and he intended her to have the real estate unencumbered; (3) he gave his widow only $35,000 out of a personal estate of over $122,000 and did not intend that that legacy should be diminished by the payment of any of his debts. In our opinion these circumstances, considered either separately or together, are not sufficient to raise any inference that the entire $8,000 debt should be paid from the husband's estate. The provision for the payment of debts is merely the standard provision found in most wills, and is merely declaratory of the law. The arguments based on the other two circumstances are merely surmises; no language in the will supports them. The case of Stieff v. Millikin, 162 Md. 245, 159 A. 599, cited by the widow, involved a finding of fact that the debt was the sole obligation of the husband, and that an attempted devise of the land to the wife, though ineffectual, evidenced an intent to exonerate the land from the mortgage debt. It is not in point here. We find nothing in the will supporting the widow's first contention.