| Summary: | The bill was to obtain the proper construction of the will of Anna Boyce. The question was as to which fund was liable for the payment of the estate's debts. In the will Boyce directed that her slaves be emancipated and gave a certain fund to them, then directed that a third of the money raised from the sale of property otherwise undisposed of should also go to the slaves. At a previous hearing (case 4752.1) the clauses regarding the slaves had been declared void on the basis that slaves could not take by wills, and the executor had started to use the slaves as the fund out of which to pay the debts (as they had been declared an undisposed surplus) when the present bill was filed by Boyce's next of kin to stop him. The next of kin contended that the proceeds of the second fund given to the slaves was the correct one for him to use, and the executor brought suit to obtain guidance. The Supreme Court ruled that the law directed that the primary fund looked to for the payment of an estate's debts was those parts of the testator's property that were otherwise undisposed of, and in this instance that included the slaves.
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