Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ And while it is pressed that substitutions are strictly construed in favor of the first taker, we do not understand that or any other rule of construction to require a perversion of language, or to govern a case where the second taker stands on an equal footing with the first in the testator's mind, with equal mutual chances, and when the plainly expressed purpose is to create an artificial class, with cross limitations in case of death without a child. ”

“ For each of the nieces being heir to all the others, accretion among them would be excluded. It is argued, to be sure, that they might requdiate the inheritance and then claim under the will, if any of the nieces died heavily in debt. ”

“ If it means the latter, the mother inherited, as she was the lawful heir. If it means the former, then, by the terms of the will, Felipa Benicia's share went to the testator's nieces when she died. It seems to us too plain to need extended elucidation that sucesi on legitima here means issue. The argument on the other side, that the purpose is merely to prevent an escheat by making the nieces and Felipa Benicia reciprocal successors, to impose a fetter on free alienation, and to enhance the dowry of the nieces, strikes us as fanciful. ”