Hays v. Wright

Grason, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The controversy in this case grows out of the conflicting claims of the appellants, who are the representatives of John ¹²⁵ Hays, and the appellees, who are the representatives of Ann M. Hays, to seven United States bonds, each for one thousand dollars. The record shows that John Hays made a schedule of these seven bonds, the number of each being given, as well as its value and elate, and on the 14th March, 1867, executed an assignment thereon in the following words : “For value received I assign the within U. S, bonds to Ann Maria Hays;” signed “John Hays,” and witnessed by S. J. Edwards. The bonds were in hank in a package, endorsed “'§7000 5-20 bonds, the property of John Hays or Ann Maria Hays, deposited for safe-keeping.” It further appears that John Hays collected the interest upon them down to the time of his death, although during several years of that time Ann Maria Hays kept a separate hank account, and that after his death these bonds were delivered to his executor without objection made by the appellees.

John Hays made his will on the 19th January, 1867, by which, after some special bequests, he gave and bequeathed “ all the rest and residue of his personal estate of every' description, money's, bonds, notes, judgments, evidences of debt, furniture and all other personal property of every kind and description,” to his wife, the said Ann Maria Hays. Mrs. Hays died a short time before her bus-band, John Hays. The decision in Glenn vs. Belt, 7 G. & J., 362 , conclusively settles the question now before us. Section 304 of Article 93 of the Code provides that no devise, legacy or bequest shall lapse or fail of taking effect by reason of the death of the devisee or legatee in the lifetime of tlie testator, but that any such devise, legacy or bequest shall have the same effect and operation in law as if such devisee or legatee.bad survived the testator.

The Court of Appeals, in the case of Glenn vs. Belt, before referred to, have construed this section of the law, and they decided that the time of the transfer is the death of the testator, and that the persons to whom the