Pigott v J'Anson
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 08 December 1759 |
| Date | 08 December 1759 |
| Court | High Court of Chancery |
English Reports Citation: 28 E.R. 767
HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY
1 EDEN, 469. PIGOTT V. j'ANSON 767 [469] pigott v. j'anson. 5th & 8th Dec. 1759. Testator having bequeathed his personal estate to his wife, with a contingent disposition to any child she might be enceinte with, by an instrument executed in the East Indies during his last illness, empowers A. and B. to invest any gold-dust, &c., which he had in bottomry, &c., as they should think most advantageous, and deliver the same over to his wife, or her assigns, she running all risk : held, that this instrument, though it had been proved in the ecclesiastical court, was merely an act inter vivos, and not a revocation of the will. Courts of law and equity supervise the acts of the spiritual court, when they are incidental to their own determinations ; and therefore if they prove an act inter vivos, they will consider it as void, and coram non judice, as much as if that court had proved a will relative to lands only. John Somers, who was a supercargo on board an East India ship, being about to sail from England on a voyage, executed a will, bearing date the lith of December 1719, whereby he bequeathed all his personal estate to his wife Sarah Somers, to have and enjoy the use and interest thereof for her life ; and if she should happen to be enceinte of a child or children by him begotten, then from and after her decease, unto such his child, if but one, or if more, to such his children, equally to be divided between them, share and share alike ; and to his, her, or their use and benefit for ever. Being afterwards, in the course of the voyage, very dangerously ill, he signed a paper, bearing date the 23d of December 1720, which was the day before his death, in which, after taking notice that he was chief supercargo on board the Bridgewater, then in the Straights of Malacca, he empowered the captain, Williamson, and Massey, the chief mate, to dispose or let out on bottomry any money which should be produced by the sale of his effects at Madras; and he directed that Mr. Mobbitt, of Fort St. George, should invest any gold which he had on board in diamonds for his said wife ; but if -that could not be done, that Williamson and Massey should dispose of it on bottomry as they should think most advantageous, and deliver the same to his wife or her assigns : she, his [470] said wife, running all risks that might accrue by letting out any of the said money on bottomry. He then gave some...
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The Rev. Mungo Noble Thompson, Petitioner. The Right Hon. Richard Lalor Shiel, Respondent
...2 Russ. 208; 1 Jacob, 184; 8 Sim. 308. Rogers v. Browne Hayes, 487. Lessee of Coffey v. Rahilly 3 Law Rec. N. S. 193. Pigott v. J'AnsonENR 1 Eden, 469, 471. Attorney-General v. Lord Hotham 1 Turn. & Russ. 218-19. Chancellor LyndhurstENR 3 Russ. 415. Welch v. NashENR 8 East, 394. CASES IN EQ......