Naab v. Smith

97 P.2d 677, 55 Wyo. 181, 1940 Wyo. LEXIS 4
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 9, 1940
Docket2130
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 97 P.2d 677 (Naab v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Naab v. Smith, 97 P.2d 677, 55 Wyo. 181, 1940 Wyo. LEXIS 4 (Wyo. 1940).

Opinion

*186 Blume, Justice.

Jean Poston was formerly married to one Frank J. Poston, resident of this state. The latter died in this state on November 11, 1925, leaving Jean Poston and their four children as heirs. On November 18, 1927, she made her last will and testament, disposing of her property so inherited to her four children. The will was executed at Rock Springs, in this state, where it was left. The next day she married Anthony Wayne Smith, a resident of Denver, Colorado, and she and her children moved with him to his residence where they continued to reside until her death at that place on October 4th, 1938. W. A. Muir, one of the executors appointed in the will, filed the will in the district court of Sweetwater county in this state, praying that the will be admitted to probate. She left property in this *187 state, consisting of real property and a bank deposit in the Rock Springs National Bank, in this state, in the amount of about §22,000. Anthony Wayne Smith, herein called the objector, filed objections to the probate of the will, on the ground that the deceased died a resident of Colorado; that under the law of that state the last will and testament of a person is revoked .by subsequent marriage alone, and that that is also true under the laws of this state, namely, under section 88-105, Rev. St. 1931, which, after providing for specific methods of revoking a will, further provides that “nothing contained in this section shall prevent the revocation implied by law from subsequent changes in the condition or circumstances of the testator.” The trial court, finding that the will was duly executed according to the laws of this state, also found that it had been revoked under the clause just quoted, and refused to admit the will to probate for that reason. The petitioner for probate, and the guardian ad litem for the minor children, have appealed from that decision.

1. It is the contention of counsel for the objector that the will of the deceased was revoked by her subsequent marriage, and they believe that we indicated that to be the rule in Johnston v. Laird, 48 Wyo. 532, 52 P. (2d) 1219. That case involved the will of a man. What we said about a woman’s will was but incidental. We made no reference, or scant reference, to the many cases directly bearing on such will, and it would seem that we should scarcely have failed to do so, if we had meant to express our opinion thereon. We mentioned the fact that husband and wife stand on an equal footing under modern laws and conditions, and that, accordingly, if a woman’s will were held to be revoked by subsequent marriage alone, it would be just as urgent to hold that to be the rule in the case of a man’s will. And we cited some cases so holding. If we had *188 adopted the rule of those cases, that would have furnished good ground for analogical reasoning in this case. But we did not do so, but rested the decision of that case upon different grounds. We think, accordingly, that Johnston v. Laird furnishes no authority for the case at bar, and that we are free to consider this case as one of first impression.

At common law, the will of a woman was ordinarily revoked by her subsequent marriage. 68 C. J. 831. That was first held in Forse and Hembling’s Case, 4 Coke 60 b, 76 Eng. Repr. 1022, decided about 1588. The reasons for that seem to have been sufficient at that time. A will is in its nature ambulatory; that is to say, it is revocable up to the time of the death of the person making it. If that ambulatory nature is taken away, its essence is destroyed, and with it the whole will. At common law, a woman’s legal existence was to a large extent merged in’ that of her husband. He became entitled, upon marriage, to an interest in her property real and personal, and in part at least, had full control thereof. 30 C. J. 526, 530; 68 C. J. 419, 420. The wife, losing the absolute -power of disposition thereof, lost power to do with her previous will as she wished, and the latter was, accordingly, held to be revoked by her marriage. Ashhurst, J., in Doe v. Staple, 2 T. R. 684, 100 Eng. Rep. 368, 375 (1788), stated that “the marriage must have that operation, because a will supposes a disposing power at the time in the person making it, and that it shall be always afterwards subject to his control; but that is not the case with a woman after coverture; for when she enters in that engagement, she gives up the right to her own property.”

Under section 88-101, Rev. St. 1931, any person of full age and sound mind may, with certain exceptions, dispose of his or her property by will. Under section 69-104 “any woman may, while married, make a will *189 the same as though she were sole.” Under section 69-101 all the property which a woman has at the time of her marriage and all the property which she acquires during her marriage from any person by descent or otherwise, remains her separate property notwithstanding her marriage, and under her sole control. In fact, substantially all her disabilities at common law have disappeared, and she has been placed on substantially the same footing with her husband. It is a maxim of the common law that when the reason of a rule ceases, the rule itself should cease. 11 C. J. 224. It would seem to be clear that this maxim should be applied in connection with the rule of the common law now under discussion. It is true that our statutes do not in so many words repeal the rule that a woman’s will is not revoked by subsequent marriage alone. But that is the effect. The premises upon which the common law rule was built is destroyed. We must build upon new premises. As we stated in Rhinehart v. Rhinehart, 52 Wyo. 363, 380, 75 P. (2d) 390:

“.Constantly aiming as the law does at ideal justice, it cannot, in the absence of a positive legislative rule to the contrary, ignore changed conditions and proceed from premises which are no longer sound. The only doubt which can arise in such case is as to whether or not, in view of the desirability of the certainty of legal rules, the change is sufficiently marked as to justify a departure from a former rule. If such conditions have clearly and markedly changed, the law must proceed from new premises consistent with the changes. Hence decisions founded upon the assumption that a wife is under the dominance of her husband, when that assumption is unrelated to present day realties, ’ought not to be permitted to prescribe a rule of life.’ ”

Accordingly, most of the modern cases which have passed upon the point have held that under statutes similar to ours, the common law rule above mentioned must be held to be abolished and that a woman’s will is not, any more than a man’s will, revoked by subse *190 quent marriage alone. 68 C. J. 839; Chapman v. Dismer, 14 App. D. C. 446; In re Tuller’s Will, 79 Ill. 99, 22 Am. R. 164; Hastings v. Day, 130 N. W. 134, 151 Iowa 39; In re Hunt’s Will, 81 Me. 275, 17 Atl. 68; Roane v. Hollingshead, 76 Md. 369, 25 Atl. 307; Noyes v. Southworth, 55 Mich. 173, 20 N. W. 891; Durfee v. Risch, 142 Mich. 504, 105 N. W. 1114; Kelly v. Stevenson, 85 Minn. 247, 88 N. W. 739; Lee v. Blewett, 116 Miss. 341, 77 So. 147; Morey v. Sohier, 63 N. H. 507, 3 Atl. 636; Fellows v. Allen, 60 N. H. 439, 49 Am. Rep. 328; Webb v. Jones, 36 N. J. Eq. 163; Morton v. Onion, 45 Vt. 145; In re Lyon’s Will, 71 N. W. 362, 96 Wis. 339; Ward’s Will, 35 N.

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Bluebook (online)
97 P.2d 677, 55 Wyo. 181, 1940 Wyo. LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/naab-v-smith-wyo-1940.