In Re Will of Wiggins

Clark, C. J. It is true that item 6 was a residuary clause, but the articles therein given specifically to Jennie Wiggins do not abate in favor of a pecuniary legacy. In Young v. Young, 56 N. C., 217, the Court held that a devise, almost in the exact terms of this, was a specific legacy, and therefore did not abate in payment of a pecuniary legacy. In Heath v. McLaughlin, 115 N. C., 402, the Court held that the bequest of two shares of capital stock in the Columbia Manufacturing Company was a specific legacy. In Robinson v. McIver, 63 N. C., 645, a case almost exactly on all fours with this, the Court held: “General pecuniary legacies are not chargeable upon, or to be preferred to, specific devises of land, although the latter be found in a residuary clause, which also includes personalty.” These cases merely recognize the well established rule that “specific legacies do not abate with, or contribute to, general legacies. There are exceptions as when the whole estate is given in specific legacies, and there is a pecuniary legacy, or when an intention that the specific legacies shall abate, appears in the will.” Heath v. McLaughlin, supra. This last is not the case here, for the codicil expressly confirms the devise of the property given to Jennie Wiggins by items 1 and 6, and indicates *328 no intention to reduce it' in favor, or subject it to the lien of the pecuniary legacy to Lucy Little. In this case the last clause of item 6, which provides: “In fact every species of personal property I may possess at my death not named in my will,” is a general legacy. The testator died leaving a considerable quantity of meat, to wit, 500 pounds. This meat is not bequeathed specifically, and was properly applied to the pecuniary legacies in the codicil. The second sentence in item 6 of said will, “I give and bequeath to my daughter, Jennie Wiggins, all moneys, if any, after paying as above directed (debts and funeral expenses) to her and her alone,” was another general legacy, and the residue of said fund was properly applied to the pecuniary legacies in the codicil. There being general and specific legacies in the will, the latter do not abate in payment of the pecuniary legacies. Affirmed.