McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated (Volume 14); With Annotations from State and Federal Courts and State Agencies

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. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ...had ever been used for family purposes; and also as to trunks bought and used by F. individually, and other personal property which had, for a long time, been excluded from the house and had not been in use. Gorham v. Fillmore, (1888) 111 N. Y. 251, 18 N. E. 729. Construction of contract to make child of wife heir, etc.--Where, in an antenuptial contract, the prospective husband, in consideration of a certain sum to be advanced for use in his business by the prospective wife, agreed to marry her, adopt her daughter by a former marriage and make the latter his heir, also to give her all his property by will, unless he should have a child or children of his own, and in that event to divide his property equally among all the children, herself included, it was held that the provision that he should bequeath and devise all his property to the daughter must be read in connection with the context that he would adopt her and make her his heir; that when thus read, the reasonable construction was that he intended to treat the daughter as his own child and when he died to leave his property to her, or to her and his own children if he had any; and that it could not be held from the contract, construed as a whole and in the light of the situation of the parties and their mutual promises to marry, that the parties intended that the husband should create a trust for his wife's daughter or fetter his estate so that he could not use it for any ordinary or reasonable purpose or give a reasonable amount thereof to charity. Dickinson v. Seaman, (1908) 193 N. Y. 818, 20 L. R. A. N. S.) 1154, affirming 117 App. Div. 908, 102 N. Y. S. 1134. Settlement of marital property rights.--Antenuptial contracts intended tc regulate and control the interest which...