Estate of Purcell

The one question presented by this appeal from the decree of distribution in the Estate of Mary B. Purcell, Deceased, is this: Was a precatory trust established by the seventeenth section of said will ?

The estate is a large one, having a value of more than four hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The specific bequests disposed of one hundred and forty-one thousand dollars, leaving something 'more than two hundred and thirty thousand dollars to Charles A. Purcell as residuary legatee. By another clause of the will he was left a specific bequest of thirty thousand dollars. Appellants, heirs at law of the deceased, are appealing upon the theory that the residuary bequest is in violation of section 1313 of the Civil Code because it is contrary to the provision in that section limiting the proportion of an estate which may be devised or bequeathed in trust for charitable uses. The probate court sustained the will.

The paragraph of the will which is here attacked is as follows:

Assuming that the heirs at law have the right to appeal, the part of the will quoted above was properly declared valid. It does not create a precatory trust. But even if it did, the proportion of the estate…