Melville Fuller

“ At all events, the express language of the act cannot be overcome by the difficulty suggested, if it be such, and the intention of congress in favor of the next of kin thereby rendered liable to be defeated. ”

“ From these considerations, and by necessary construction of the language employed, it results that 'next of kin,' as used in the proviso, means next of kin living at the date of the act. The court of claims must certify that the personal representatives 'represent the next of kin,' and that court has properly held that, before there can be a certificate of that fact, it must appear that some next of kin are now in existence. ”

“ It often happens that administrators receive money which is not to be administered as part of the general assets, but is to be distributed in a particular way. Whether, upon his general bond, an administrator could be held for the performance of such special duty, might depend upon the local statutes of each state; and congress was not obliged to consider whether the ordinary bond would cover the case, or whether a new bond would be required, or whether additional state legislation would be necessary. ”

“ The general rule is that, so long as the debts of a decedent remain unpaid, the assets which come into his estate are to be applied in payment, and these moneys, if they could be treated as assets at all (being paid over, not as in liquidation of pre-existing claims thereby acknowledged, but as concessions made on equitable considerations) , would partake of the nature of subsequently discovered assets, and be liable to be subjected to the payment of debts. ”

“ Vasse was followed, and applied to the awards of the Alabama claims commission. The United States had demanded and received indemnity for losses sustained by their citizens, and had recognized as valid the class of claims to which the particular claim belonged, and had created a court to adjudicate thereon. It was held that the claim passed to the assignee in bankruptcy, and that payment of awards so made could not be regarded as a mere gratuity. ”

“ Harmony, 72 N. Y. 408: 'When the language of a limitation is capable of two constructions, one of which would operate to disinherit a lineal descendant of the testator, while the other will not produce that effect, the latter should be preferred. An intention to disinherit an heir, even a lineal descendant, when expressed in plain and unambiguous language, must be carried out ”

“ The events which had given rise to these claims had occurred nearly a century before, and there was nothing unreasonable in the determination of congress that only the immediate family of the original sufferers should participate in these awards. These sufferers had been in their graves for 60 years. ”

“ Jackson, 153 Mass. 374, 26 N. E. 1112) ; and in Connecticut that, 'when the terms of a will leave the intention of the testator in doubt, the courts generally incline to adopt that construction which conforms more nearly to the statute of distributions' (Geery v. Skelding, 62 Conn. 499, 501, 27 Atl. 77; Conklin v. Davis, 63 Conn. 377, 28 Atl. 537) . ”