Estate of Dager

Captain Joseph W. Dager died September 11, 1894, leaving a last will and testament dated July 14, 1894. Testator was at the time of the execution of his will of the age of seventy-three years. He had one brother and five sisters, all of them older than himself, and all of them being dead at the date of the execution of the will. He knew that his brother and three of his sisters left children, and these are mentioned in his will. His wife had been dead about thirteen years. For a long period of years he had heard nothing of his wife’s relatives, residing in Germany, or his own, residing in the eastern states, and knew nothing definite about them. He had been a sailor and sea captain in early life, and had not engaged in that pursuit for a number of years before his death. He dictated the terms of his will to Mr. R. W. Hent, a practitioner of recognized skill and long and wide experience at the San Francisco bar, and insisted on referring to the children of his brother and sisters, *24 as well as the children of his wife’s relatives, as “heirs.” Mr. Hent complied with the letter of this request, and used the word “heirs” throughout, even though in the case of the legacies to the…