A bequest of a “portion” of the estate is executed to the extent of the smallest portion inherited from it, and a bequest of “part of the estate,” undefined, may be construed to apply to any part.
A person bequeathing a third of any particular property, if two-thirds of it be lost, and the remainder come within a third of the testator’s estate, the legatee is entitled to the whole of such remainder; and a bequest of “the third of” an article, part of which is afterwards destroyed, holds with respect to a third of the remainder.
A legacy of money must be paid in full with the property in hand, although all the rest of the estate should be expended in debts.
A legacy left to two persons, one of them being at that time dead, goes entire to the living legatee.
A legacy being bequeathed to two persons indefinitely, if one of them die, a moiety of it only goes to the other.
A bequest made by a poor man is of force if he afterwards become rich.
A bequest of any article, not existing in the possession or disposal of the testator at his decease, is null, unless it was referred to his property, in which case it must be discharged by a payment of the value.
An acknowledgment of debt, upon a death-bed, is efficient to the extent of a third of the estate.
Any accident occasioning uncertainty with respect to the legatees, annuls the bequest.
An heir, after partition of the estate, acknowledging a bequest in favour of another, must pay the acknowledged legatee his proportion of such bequest.