Cheever N. Ely, as Executor of Smith Ely, Deceased, Respondent v. William H. Megie, Respondents, and Edwin…

Summary

The New York Court of Appeals affirmed the trial term's judgment, holding that extrinsic evidence may be admitted to interpret the term “personal estate” and that the testator intended legacies to be charged upon his real estate; it declared the charitable legacies to the New York City Mission and Tract Society, the New York Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, the Children’s Aid Society, and the Sea Breeze Hospital invalid, and rejected the doctrine of dependent relative revocation as a means to revive earlier bequests.