State ex rel. Justices of Washington County Court v. Prewett

1. A court will not interfere to establish the validity of a charity in a will, depending upon a contingency which has not arisen and may never arise.

Appeal from Washington Circuit Court. In 1851, Gabriel Prewett died, leaving a last will, by which he devised all his land to his wife for her life, and after her death, to her children, if she should have any. If she should die without children, then he desired all his land to be “ sold to the best advantage, and appropriated to the use of education of orphan children.” He specified as one of the tracts belonging to him eighty acres entered in the name of his wife. The present petition was filed in the Circuit Court in the name of the state of Missouri, at the relation of the justices of the county court, against the widow, son and administrator of Gabriel Prewett, setting forth that it was the duty of the relators to watch over the welfare of orphan children within their county, and praying the court to establish the devise for the benefit of such children as a charity. The petition further set forth that the widow was claiming the eighty acres entered in her name, as her own; and that she was “ a very young and healthy woman,” and might " live half a centuryfor which reason the relator prayed the court to hear the proof while it could be obtained, and declare that the said tract belonged to Gabriel Prewett’s estate. The petition contained other prayers which it is not necessary to state. A demurrer to this petition being sustained below, the relators appealed to this court.