Mathes v. Smart

51 N.H. 438
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedDecember 15, 1871
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 51 N.H. 438 (Mathes v. Smart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mathes v. Smart, 51 N.H. 438 (N.H. 1871).

Opinion

Foster, J.

We have previously had occasion to give a construction to this will, and have considered and held that the terms “ all my books and papers of every description” were, intended to include certain promissory notes, payable to the testatrix, which, by force of the will, therefore, passed to the present plaintiff. See Perkins v. Mathes, 49 N. H. 107.

We see no occasion to modify the views expressed in the opinion of the court in that case, to which we applied such ordinary and familiar rules as these: that, in aid of the construction of a will, regard is to be had to the situation and circumstances of the testator, his family, and relatives, and the nature, amount, and situation of his property ; that, having regard for these considerations, the construction depends upon the intention of the testator, to be ascertained from a full view of everything contained “ within the four corners of the instrument”; that the words of a will must be taken in their ordinary, popular signification, unless there is something in the context or subject-matter clearly indicating a different use of the terms employed, and that a testator [441]*441is to be considered as intending a benefit to the object of bis gift. See Hart v. Tulk, 2 DeGex M. & G. *311.

Looking at the context of this will, we find that the testatrix gave to the plaintiff all her books and papers ; and this bequest was held to include (in view of all the circumstances of that case) the promissory notes due to the testatrix.

And we held, in that case, that the literal terms of the bequest were broad enough to include not only the Bible and other religious books— the tracts, pamphlets, manuscripts, memorandum, &c., described in the inventory of the estate — but also the account-books of the deceased, her promissory notes, bonds, certificates of stock or of deposits, and other evidences of debts due to her ; and that these would probably be held to carry and transfer, as incident thereto, the property, moneys, rights, and choses in action of which such papers are the representative. But as we then took occasion to say, so we may now repeat, — “ that the terms ‘ books and papers’ in this will were used in a sense less comprehensive, is manifest by reference to that part of the context which contains a specific bequest to the Congregational society of the interest upon the money in the Savings Bank at Dover. The testatrix could not have intended to give to one legatee the deposits in the bank, and to another the worthless certificate of deposit; for although, in terms, she gives to the society the interest only upon the deposits, yet, by other terms in the same clause, the principal is placed within the absolute control of it, and, by implication of law, it belongs absolutely to the society. The unqualified gift of the income of a fund confers an absolute and not merely a life interest in the principal, unless a contrary intention of the testator clearly appears. Blann v. Bell, 13 Eng. L. & Eq. 188; Doe d. Guest v. Bennett, 6 Exch. (W. H. & G.) 892; South v. Alleine, Salk. 228. A gift of the interest of £1000 is tantamount to an absolute bequest of the capital. Humphrey v. Humphrey, 6 Eng. L. & Eq. 113; Andrews v. Boyd, 5 Greenl. 199; Adamson v. Armitage, 19 Ves. 416; Co. Lit. 4 b; Craft v. Snook, 2 Beasley (N. J.) 121.

“ It is manifest, therefore, that the money in the Savings Bank at Dover did not pass to Benjamin Mathes, Jr., under the bequest of books and papers.”

Is any different intention to be,inferred or other construction given to the will with respect to the deposits in the Newmarket Savings Bank ?

On the contrary, the peculiar, precise, and appropriate language of the will, in respect to her bank funds, affords strong intrinsic evidence that the testatrix could not have intended that these deposits should go to the plaintiff under the bequest of books and papers.

The bequest to the plaintiff of all the books and papers of the testatrix is contained in the eighth clause of her will.

Immediately following this bequest comes the ninth clause, containing a specific bequest of other deposits in a savings bank to the Congregational society. This clause is framed and expressed with special care, and with evident understanding of the import and meaning of the [442]*442terms used. By these terms she gives to the Congregational society “ all the interest accruing on all my deposits in the Savings Bank for the County of Strafford, at Dover, N. H., to be paid to them from year to year,” &c. “ And I will and order that said, deposits shall not be removed or withdrawn from said bank by my executors,” &c., thereby excluding from the custody of her executors, as well as from the plaintiff, to whom she had immediately before given all her books and papers of every kind, the book containing evidence of and control over the deposits in the Strafford Savings Bank.

■ Now, although these two clauses are thus closely connected and-the latter is so carefully expressed, there is no reference in either to the other, nor anything in either of them to indicate that in the mind of the testatrix one clause conflicted with the other.

In the ninth clause the testatrix uses apt words descriptive of her funds in the savings banks, designating so much of those funds as is there disposed of by the terms “ all my deposits in the Savings Bank for the County of Strafford;” and in the latter part of the same clause she orders that said deposits shall not be removed,” <fcc.

It is to be observed that in disposing of these funds she does not give to the society her deposit book, bank book, or her books or papers at all, — terms which she would have been very likely to employ if she had adopted, in the prior clause, the words “ books and papers” as the proper terms' to -use in the disposition of these funds.

One of Mr. Jarman’s fundamental rules in the construction of wills is the following: “ XYIII. That words occurring more than once in a will shall be presumed to be used always in the same sense, unless a contrary intention appear by the context, or unless the words be applied to a different subject.” 1 Redf. Wills 428, note, and authorities cited.

To adopt the .language of the learned counsel for the executors: “ The presumption would seem to be equally strong, that where a testator describes the same or a like object in his will more than once, he would do so by the same words, or words of similar import. And here, if it had been the understanding of the testatrix that she was bequeathing to the plaintiff the deposits in the Newmarket Savings Bank under the term books and papers,’ it is to be presumed that she would have used the same or some like term in bequeathing like deposits in the Savings Bank for the County of Strafford.

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Related

Richardson v. Martin
55 N.H. 45 (Supreme Court of New Hampshire, 1874)

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Bluebook (online)
51 N.H. 438, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mathes-v-smart-nh-1871.