We can give no better statement of it than the admirable summary given by that eminent jurist in his opinion, where the subject of nuncupative wills received a thorough discussion.
Chancellor Kent says: "This has been the uniform language of the English law-writers from that time to this day, so that it has become the acknowledged doctrine, that a nuncupative will is only to be tolerated when made in extremis.
The nuncupative will was proved by nine witnesses; and after examination in the course of a trial, it appeared most of the witnesses were perjured, and Mrs. Cole was found guilty of subornation.
In extremis=--persons in allowed to make nuncupative wills, p.
It was held in New York that a person employed as cook on board of a steamship should be classed as a mariner at sea, and therefore entitled to make a nuncupative will.
Upon this, Chancellor Kent observed: "I should hope to see one day a law that no nuncupative will should be valid in any case.
A nuncupative will is a verbal declaration of a person's intention as to the manner of disposition of his property after death.
In this country, the cases upon the subject of nuncupativewills are considerably numerous since the last civil war.
There must be in the testator the animus testandi, which is sometimes presumed from circumstances in such cases and in such places as nuncupative wills are recognized.
It is true that under certain exceptional circumstances a man may make what is known as a nuncupative will.
Then he sat down, bent low to the desk, and wrote on a blank form the preamble of a nuncupative will.
But a wish is one thing; a will, even a nuncupative will by public act, is another and an infinitely better and more effective thing.
Sir John Fastolf, the third, which is in Latin, is clearly a will nuncupative declaring the testator's mind in the third person, and defining the powers of the executors in regard to his goods and chattels.
Sidenote: Sir Thomas Howes unites with Yelverton, not an error: sentence continues below]] It was apparently this nuncupative will that Howes declared to be spurious.
But it was the nuncupative will that appointed ten executors and yet gave John Paston and Thomas Howes sole powers of administration, except in cases where those two thought fit to ask their assistance.
The Nuncupative Will of Master William Mullens; and XI.
It appears from Milton's nuncupative will, that the old man never paid him a penny of the promised marriage portion of L1000; and that the three daughters, too true daughters of such a mother, had behaved to him very undutifully.
Persons other than soldiers and sailors may make nuncupative wills when in their last sickness or in danger of impending death.
A gift causa mortis may be made orally, while, with the exception of nuncupative wills, all wills must be in writing.
Nuncupative wills are good only to dispose of personal property, unless a special statute has been enacted which provides otherwise, but this is not commonly done.
