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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 4, Page 463   View pdf image (33K)
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SPENCER VS. SPENCER. 463
Rep., 165; Messenger vs. Andrews, 3 Eng. Cond. Chancery
Rep., 761.
But it seems to the Chancellor, that this case is clearly dis-
tinguishable from all those which have been cited in support of
the proposition contended for. In all of them real estate was
devised upon condition that the devisees should pay the plain-
tiff certain pecuniary legacies of ascertained amounts, and by
accepting the devises the devisees became personally bound,
upon the principle that he who takes a benefit under a will
must conform to all its provisions, and set up no rights incon-
sistent with them. But this will presented no such condition
to the devisee, Isaac Spencer. It did not say to him you shall
have my estate, real and personal, upon condition that you pay
the complainants and the other parties interested certain speci-
fied sums of money. Its language is, "after all my debts are
paid, you are to call in two discreet persons (consulting if you
please the Orphans Court as to the persons) to make an esti-
mate of the real value of all my estate, real and personal," and
then, at a certain period, that value so ascertained was to be
paid by the devisee in equal portions to the complainants and
certain other persons described in the will. It is true the tes-
tator expressed an opinion that his debts could be paid at a
very early day, without selling any portion of his estate, but
still the estimate of the value was to be made after the payment
of the debts, and it was only what should remain after such pay-
ment that was to be valued and paid to the complainants and
the other parties.
The terms employed by the testator in effect are these:
you are to pay my debts first and then you are to cause a valu-
ation of my property to be made, and the amount of such valu-
ation you are to pay to certain parties in the proportions de-
signated by me. It seems impossible to say that by accepting
such a devise as this, Isaac Spencer became bound to pay the
entire value of the estate of William to the complainants and
others, without regard to the debts. If such had been the in-
tention of the testator, and if he had designed to put any such
alternative to his devisee, why not direct a valuation to be

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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 4, Page 463   View pdf image (33K)
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