| Summary: | Under his will, Arthur Green bequeathed the use of all his property and certain named slaves to his wife, Eleanor, until her death. At Eleanor's death, this property, including the slaves, was to be divided equally between Patsy Powell (Arthur Green's niece) and Mary Ann Watson (Eleanor Green's granddaughter). Secondly, at Eleanor's death two slaves not before named, Ben and Nancy, were to be emancipated and given certain property. Thirdly, [dollars] 500 was given under the will to William Watson, Eleanor Green's son. Patsy Powell subsequently married one William Webb, and he conveyed Powell's interest in Arthur Green's slaves to John White. William Watson then died intestate, and his administrator, Eleanor Green and Arthur Green's executor jointly proposed to sell a number of the slaves then in the possession of Eleanor Green in order to raise the [dollars] 500 bequeathed to William Watson in Arthur Green's will. White, having had Powell's interest in these slaves previously conveyed to him by Webb, mounted an action against the three. In their defence they argued that the cash bequest left to William Watson was a charge on Arthur Green's whole estate and that they could legitimately raise the funds to fulfill it by selling the slaves. At the lower court hearing, the judge ruled that White was entitled to the share of the slaves conveyed to him by Webb and that the cash bequest to William Watson could not be raised from the sale of these slaves, who had been specifically bequeathed to named individuals. He also ruled that the emancipation of Ben and Nancy, and the bequest of property to them, was void, owing to the will having been made before a law on emancipation passed in 1830. The defendants appealed to the Supreme Court. There, Chief Justice Ruffin ruled that if a will provides for a general legacy and on probate it becomes apparent that there are no assets in the estate to fulfil this legacy, since all assets are disposed of in specific legacies, then it can be paid out of the assets earmarked for the specific legatees, on the assumption that the testator did not intend to mock the [general] legatee. So, since Ben and Nancy's emancipation was void, and since the will did not mention them by name in relation to what was to happen to them between the deaths of Arthur Green and Eleanor Green, then they could be sold and the proceeds used to pay all or part of the [dollars] 500 due to William Watson. The lower court's verdict that the bequests of slaves to Patsy Powell and Mary Ann Watson were protected from the claims of William Watson was therefore reversed.
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