Estate of Stott

The will of deceased contains the following provision:

The daughter, Mrs. Anna King, petitions for distribution to her of the entire estate, upon the following facts:

At the time the will was made, Aoma was the wife of James C. King. In 1874, King was convicted of manslaughter in the State of New York, and was sentenced to the State Prison of that State at Sing Sing for life, where he still remains under that sentence. King was, and his wife has been ever since, and still is domiciled in New York. The statute of New York contains the provision that “a person sentenced to imprisonment in a State prison for life shall thereafter be civilly dead;” and by the law of that State it is not bigamy for a woman to marry again after her husband has been sentenced to the State prison for life, nor does a pardon restore him to marital rights.

Counsel have not been able to refer to any decision directly upon facts similar to the case at bar, but some few decisions have been cited upon points having analogy, such as, that when a man becomes civilly dead, his property goes to his heirs, and a subsequent pardon does not restore it; a pardon does not revive the old rights, but gives him new…