The District Reports of Cases Decided in All the Judicial Districts of the State of Pennsylvania (Volume 12)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1903 Excerpt: ... Probate of Wilson s Will. dent to award an issue. There is nothing in the testimony of the other witnesses called by the contestants on either branch of the case that would justify the awarding of an issue. The question of republication and revocation is a mixed one of fact and law. The question as to whether or not a will can be republished by parol in Pennsylvania since the Wills Act of April 8, 1833, P. L. 249, is an open one, and no case by the appellate court has been called to our attention in which this point has been decided on a will which has been made since the Act of 1833. There are two Common Pleas cases, viz., Rankin's Estate, 4 W. N. C. 203, and Rankin v. Rankin, 5 W. N. C. 127, which decide that a will cannot be republished by parol; while in Jacoby's Estate, 45 Pitts. L. J. 17, and Gillespie's Estate, 5 District Reps. 65, it was decided that a will may be republished by parol, but, as we view it, it is not necessary to decide this point at this time. The rule of law is that the republication of a will--even if it can be as to a will executed after the Act of 1833--must be accompanied by the same solemnities as are necessary for the publication in the first instance, and must be proved by two witnesses, and it must be shown that it was the intention of the testator at that time that the will in question was and should be his will; in other words, the animus republicandi must be shown. The facts in this case fail to fill the measure of this rule. True it is that the testimony of A. M. Wilson identifies the will at West Freedom as the will which his father stated to him, after Jan. 19, 1900, that it was the will he wanted to stand, yet the statement made by the testator to his neighbor, Hugh McKee, a disinterested witness, in the latter part...