An Interesting Will Contest
An interesting will coutest was beguu iu the probate court this week. Same years ago, James Claney who resided oa the old Taylor farm north oL the city, sold the farm for $100 an acre and moved to Paw Paw, where he increased in wealth, besides inheriting 40,000. He died leavinsr a wil'l which made a son and a lawyer named Breek, of Paw Paw, executors. This will eventually divide tbe property equally among the heirs but tuey contest the validity of it, and are striving to get the property out of Breck's hands. Edward Duffy of this city was appointed special admiiiistrator. The will was offered before Judge Harriman this week for probating. The validity of the will is denied by Mrs. Claney on the ground that Mr. Claney was incompetent at the time of making it. She is representad by Sawyer & Knowlton and J. F. Lawrence, wnile Mills & Osborne, of Kalamazoo,appeared on behalf of Breek'. Breek set up a copy of a will made four years ago, which had been destroyed, claiming that if Mr. Clancv was incompetent to make a will, he was also incompetent to destroy one. These are the legal points. The two wills are not matenally different, both making Breek an executor and putting the property in his hands for a long period of time. He drafted both wills. The last will dividea sixty per cent of the property equally aniong the heirs at the time the youngest child arrivés of age, and the executors then hold the balance of the property to do with as they please until a year af ter the death of the widow, who is comparatively a young womau yet. Under the will Breek would be relieved f rom strict accounting. The will provides that if any attempt is made to contest the will, the heir so contestlng shall lose his or her inheritance. All the heirs under the will are agreed in endeavoring to get the property out of Breck's hands and we have the peculiar situation of one executor fighting for the validity of a will. which the other executor and all the beneflciari.es under the will deny. The estáte is worth about $100.000.
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Ann Arbor Argus
Old News