Wealthy Widow Smartset made her young riding companion, Joey, swear to care for her two saddle horses after she died. In her will, she left him the horses and also $14,000 to pay for their upkeep. She later sold the horses, but did not change her will. When she died, Joey asked for his $14,000, but was sharply rebuffed. So he sued her executor.
"That money," the executor argued, "was inseparably tied up with those horses. It was provided in the will simply to take care of them, not Joey. Hence, no horses, no money."
"The money should be regarded as a gift independent of the horses," Joey replied. "Perhaps the reason that Mrs. Smartset didn't alter her will, after selling the horses, was that she wanted me to have the money anyway. Her will told me what to do with the money, but it didn't require me to spend it on the horses or else."
If you were the judge, would you give horseless Joey the $ 14,000?
Joey got the $14,000. The court said that as Mrs. Smartset failed to indicate any change in her wishes if she left no horses, the court could not make such a change for her.
Based upon a 1950 New York decision.
-- José Schorr
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