Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This case arose under the will of the late Henry Arnot, baker in Edinburgh. By a codicil the testator

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left his nephew Henry Gardiner (son of a deceased sister), an annuity of £25. By another codicil, dated in 1853, he inter alia directed his whole household furniture to be divided upon his wife's death—one half among his relations, and the other half among the relations of his wife. The testator died in 1859, and his wife in 1862. At the death of the testator Henry Gardiner was fifty years of age. Claims were made upon the estate of the testator (including the sum realised for the furniture) by the testator's two sisters, as his next of kin and heirs in mobilibus, by the relations of his wife, and by the reclaimer, H. Gardiner. The estate was not sufficient for payment of Gardiner's claims for annuity and the claims made on the furniture by the other claimants. In these circumstances Gardiner pleaded that he was entitled to the annuity, that the bequest of the furniture was void by reason of the uncertainty of the meaning of the word “relations,” and that at all events—and if this were not so—he was entitled to be ranked with other relations upon the value of the furniture. The Lord Ordinary (Jerviswoode) held that the bequest of the furniture was not void from uncertainty; that Gardiner was entitled to be ranked thereon pari passu with the other relatives; but that he was not entitled to be ranked thereon in competition with the other relatives in so far as his claim was rested upon the annuity of £25 claimed by him. Against this judgment Gardiner reclaimed. The other relatives acquiesced in it. The case was argued before the Court upon 1st November, and also to-day at considerable length—chiefly upon the question whether the bequest was void or not. The Court made avizandum.