Estate of Phillips

Thomas C. Lynch, Attorney General, and Carl Boronkay, Deputy Attorney General, for Objector and Appellant.

Harold L. Myers for Petitioner and Respondent.

BISHOP, J. [fn. *]

Our attention is to center on this passage in the holographic will of the testatrix which follows a number of specific bequests: "My jewelry is to be sold. I leave the balance to my brother Leo Lyons and at his death it shall go to a Tubercolosis instute [sic]. He must give an account of any big amount before his death and handle all my affairs. To my dogs I will $500.00 to be cared for an an autopsy held that they died a natural death." With the words before it that we have emphasized, the probate court, in response to a petition for a decree determining interest, adjudicated that the residue of the estate was to be distributed to Leo W. Lyons "as life tenant with power to consume principal and interest and that on his death the part of the residue which has not been used was to go to a tuberculosis institute to be designated at time of distribution."

[1a] The Attorney General, mindful of his responsibility respecting public charities, [fn. 1] appealed from the Decree Determining Interest in Estate, making…