Disposition of

SEC. 134. The provisions of chapters thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen of this title shall not be construed in any manner to affect or impair the title of a purchaser for a valuable consideration unless it shall appear that such purchaser had previous notice of the fraudulent intent of his immediate grantor, or of the fraud rendering void the title of such grantor.

SEC. 135. The term "lands" as used in chapters thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen of this title shall be construed as coextensive in meaning with "lands, tenements, and hereditaments," and the term "estate and interest in lands" shall be construed to embrace every interest, freehold, and chattle, legal and equitable, present and future, vested and contingent in lands as above defined.

SEC. 136. The term "conveyance," as used in chapters thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen of this title shall be construed to embrace every instrument in writing except a last will and testament, whatever may be its form and by whatever name it may be known in law, by which any estate or interest in lands is created, aliened, assigned, or surrendered.

SEC. 137. Every person of twenty-one years of age and upwards, of property by will. sound mind, may by last will devise all his or her property, real or personal, saving in the case of a married man to the widow her dower, and saving in the case of a married woman any rights which her hus band may have as tenant by the curtesy.

Will, how executed.

-when revoked by marriage.

—birth of issue.

SEC. 138. Every will shall be in writing, signed by the testator, or by some other person under his direction, in his presence, and shall be attested by two or more competent witnesses, subscribing their names to the will in the presence of the testator.

SEC. 139. If, after making a will disposing of the whole estate of the testator, such testator shall marry and die, leaving issue by such marriage living at the time of his death, or shall leave issue of such marriage born to him after his death, such will shall be deemed revoked unless provision shall have been made for such issue by some settlement, or unless such issue shall be provided for in the will, and no evidence shall be received to rebut the presumption of such revocation. -marriage of SEC. 140. A will made by an unmarried person shall be deemed revoked by his or her subsequent marriage.

woman.

devised.

SEC. 141. A bond, covenant, or agreement made for a valuable con- Bond, etc., to sideration by a testator, to convey any property devised or bequeathed convey property in any last will previously made, shall not be deemed a revocation of such previous devise or bequest; but such property shall pass by the devise or bequest, subject to the same remedies on such bond, covenant, or agreement, for the specific performance or otherwise, against devisees or legatees, as might be had by law against the heirs of the testator, or his next of kin, if the same had descended to them.

any

SEC. 142. A charge or incumbrance upon any real or personal estate Charge or infor the purpose of securing the payment of money or the performance cumbrance upon of any covenant or agreement shall not be deemed a revocation of property devised. will relating to the same estate previously executed. The devises and legacies therein contained shall pass and take effect subject to such charge or incumbrance.

Children, etc., to

tate.

SEC. 143. If any person make his last will and die, leaving a child or children, or descendants of such child or children, in case of their have portion of esdeath, not named or provided for in such will, although born after the making of such will, or the death of the testator, every such testator, so far as shall regard such child or children, or their descendants not provided for, shall be deemed to die intestate; and such child or children, or their descendants, shall be entitled to such proportion of the estate of the testator, real and personal, as if he had died intestate, and the same shall be assigned to them; and all the other heirs, devisees, and legatees shall refund their proportional part.

Effect of ad

SEC. 144. If such child or children, or their descendants, shall have an equal proportion of the testator's estate bestowed on them in the vancement. testator's lifetime by way of advancement, they shall take nothing by virtue of the provisions of the preceding section.

When issue of

SEC. 145. When any estate shall be devised to any child or grandchild, or other relative of the testator, and such devisee shall die before deceased devisee the testator, leaving lineal descendants, such descendants shall take the to take estate. estate, real and personal, as such devisee would have done in case he had survived the testator.

SEC. 146. If after making any will the testator shall duly make and execute a second will, the destruction, canceling, or revocation of such second will shall not revive the first will, unless it appear by the terms of such revocation that it was his intention to revive and give effect to the first will, or unless he shall duly republish his first will.

Canceling of second will, when to

revive first.

Mariner or sol

SEC. 147. Any mariner at sea, or soldier in the military service, may dispose of his wages or other personal property as he might have done dier may dispose by common law, or by reducing the same to writing.

of wages.

Nuncupative

SEC. 148. No proof shall be received of any nuncupative will unless it be offered within six months after speaking the testamentary words, will. nor unless the words, or the substance thereof, were reduced to writing within thirty days after they were spoken.

Probate of nun

SEC. 149. No probate of any nuncupative will shall be granted for fourteen days after the death of the testator, nor shall any nuncupa- cupative will. tive will be at any time proved, unless the testamentary words, or the substance thereof, be first committed to writing, and a citation issued, accompanied with a copy thereof, to call the widow or next of kin to the deceased that they may contest the will if they think proper.

Law of place to

SEC. 150. Any person not an inhabitant of, but owning property, real or personal, in the district may devise or bequeath such property govern. by last will executed according to the laws in force in the district, State, or Territory in which the will may be executed.

SEC. 151. If such will be probated in any State, Territory, or other district of the United States, or in any foreign country or State, copies of such will and of the probate thereof, certified by the clerk of the court in which such will was probated, with the seal of the court affixed thereto, if there be a seal, together with a certificate of the chief judge

Foreign wills.

or presiding magistrate, that the certificate is in due form, and made by the clerk or other person having the legal custody of the record, -copy to be re- shall be recorded in the same manner as wills executed and proved in the district, and shall be admitted in evidence in the same manner and with like effect.

corded.

-contest of.

Devisee or legatee may prove.

When such witness to have share

of estate.

If sufficient

SEC. 152. Any such will may be contested and annulled within the same time and in the same manner as wills executed and proven in the district.

SEC. 153. If any person has attested or shall attest the execution of any will to whom any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment of or affecting real or personal estate other than or except charges in lands, tenements, or hereditaments for the payment of any debt or debts shall be thereby given or made, such devise, legacy, estate, gift, or appointment shall, so far only as concerns such person attesting the execution of such will or any person claiming under him, be void, and such person shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will.

SEC. 154. If any such witness would be entitled to any share in the testator's estate in case the will should not be established, then so much of the estate as would have descended or would have been distributed to such witness shall be saved to him as will not exceed the value of the devise or bequest made to him in the will; and he may recover the same from the devisees or legatees named in the will in proportion to and out of the parts devised and bequeathed to him.

SEC. 155. If the execution of such will be attested by a sufficient other witnesses, number of other competent witnesses, as required by this code, then devisee may take. such devise, legacy, interest, estate, gift, or appointment shall be valid. Creditor may be SEC. 156. If by any will any real estate be charged with any debt, witness. and any creditor whose debt is so charged has attested the execution of such will, every such creditor shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will.

Legatee, how made competent.

Deceased legatee, when deemed legal witness.

not legacy.

SEC. 157. If any person has attested or shall attest the execution of any will to whom any legacy or bequest is thereby given, and such person, before giving testimony concerning the execution of such will, shall have released such bequest or legacy and renounced without valuable consideration all benefits under said will, such person shall be admitted as a witness to the execution of such will.

SEC. 158. If any legatee or devisee who has attested or shall attest the execution of any will shall have died or die in the lifetime of the testator, or before he shall have received or released the legacy or bequest so given to him, and before he shall have refused to receive such legacy or bequest on a tender made thereof, such legatee or devisee shall be deemed a legal witness to the execution of such will.

Legatee, when SEC. 159. No person to whom any estate, gift, or appointment shall entitled to be given or made which is hereby declared to be null and void, or who shall have refused to receive such legacy or bequest on tender made, and who shall have been examined as a witness concerning the execution of such will, shall, after he shall have been so examined, demand or receive, except as provided in section one hundred and seventy-three any profit or benefit of or from such estate, interest, gift, or appointment so given or made to him by any such will, or demand, receive, or accept from any person any such legacy or bequest, or any satisfaction or compensation for the same.

Estate for life,

SEC. 160. If any person by last will devise any real estate to any remainder in fee. person for the term of such person's life, and after his death, to his or her children or heirs, or right heirs in fee, such devise shall vest an estate for life only in such devisee, and remainder in fee simple in such children.

When fee passes.

SEC. 161. A devise of real property shall be deemed and taken as a devise of all the estate or interest of the testator therein subject to his

disposal, unless it clearly appears from the will that he intended to devise a less estate or interest; and any estate or interest in real property acquired by anyone after the making of his or her will shall pass thereby, unless it clearly appear therefrom that such was not the intention of the testator; nor shall any conveyance or disposition of real property by anyone after the making of his or her will prevent or affect the operation of such will upon any estate or interest therein subject to the disposal of the testator at his or her death.

Contribution

real estate to any person, and the same shall be taken in execution for among legatees.

SEC. 162. When any testator in his last will shall give any chattel or

the payment of the testator's debts, then all the other legatees, devisees, and heirs shall refund their proportional part of such loss to such person from whom the bequest shall be taken.

SEC. 163. The term "will," as used in this chapter, shall be so construed as to include all codicils as well as wills.

Definition of

will.

Construction of

Life estate by

SEC. 164. All courts and others concerned in the execution of last wills shall have due regard to the directions of the will and the true wills. intent and meaning of the testator in all matters brought before them. SEC. 165. Where any estate, real or personal is given by deed or will to any person for his life, and after his death to his heirs, or to the will with remainheirs of his body, the conveyance shall be construed to vest an estate for his life only in such person, and a remainder in fee simple in his heirs or the heirs of his body.

der to heirs.

When will must

How written will

SEC. 166. A last will and testament, except when made by a soldier in actual military service or by a mariner at sea, is invalid unless it be in writing. be in writing and executed with such formalities as are required by law. SEC. 167. A written will can not be revoked or altered otherwise than by another written will, or another writing of the testator, declaring may be revoked. such revocation or alteration, and executed with the same formalities required by law for the will itself; or unless the will be burnt, torn, canceled, obliterated, or destroyed with the intent and for the purpose of revoking the same by the testator himself, or by another person in his presence, by his direction and consent; and when so done by another person the direction and consent of the testator, and the fact of such injury or destruction shall be proved by at least two witnesses.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

OF THE DESCENT OF REAL PROPERTY.

Sec.

168. Real property, to whom it descends.

real property,

Rule of descent

SEC. 168. When any person shall die seized of any or any right thereto, or entitled to any interest therein in fee simple of real property. or for the life of another, not having lawfully devised the same, such real property shall descend, subject to his debts, as follows:

(1) In equal shares to his or her children and to the issue of any deceased child by right of representation; and if there be no child of the intestate living at the time of his or her death, such real property shall descend to all his or her other lineal descendants; and if all such descendants are in the same degree of kindred to the intestate, they shall take such real property equally; or otherwise, they shall take according to the right of representation.

(2) If the intestate shall leave no lineal descendants, such real property shall descend to his wife, or if the intestate be a married woman and leave no lineal descendants, then such real property shall descend to her husband; and if the intestate leave no wife nor husband, then such real property shall descend to his or her father.

-to children.

-to wife.

-to husband. -to father.

-to brothers

(3) If the intestate shall leave no lineal descendants, neither husband nor wife, nor father, such real property shall descend in equal shares and sisters.

-to mother.

-to next of kin.

-to children of deceased child.

-to escheat.

to the brothers and sisters of the intestate, and to the issue of any deceased brother or sister by right of representation; but if the intestate shall leave a mother also, she shall take an equal share with such brothers and sisters.

(4) If the intestate shall leave no lineal descendants, neither husband nor wife, nor father, brother, nor sister, living at his or her death, such real property shall descend to his mother, to the exclusion of the issue of the deceased brothers or sisters of the intestate.

(5) If the intestate shall leave no lineal descendants, neither husband nor wife, nor father, mother, brother, nor sister, such real property shall descend to his or her next of kin in equal degree, excepting that when there are two or more collateral kindred in equal degree, but claiming through different ancestors, those who claim through the nearest ancestor shall be preferred to those claiming through a more remote ancestor.

(6) If the intestate shall leave one or more children, and the issue of one or more deceased children, and any of such surviving children shall die under age without having been married, all such real property that came to such deceased child by inheritance from such intestate shall descend in equal shares to the other children of such intestate, and to the issue of any other children of such intestate who shall have died, by right of representation. But if all the other children of such intestate shall be also dead, and any of them shall have left issue, such real property so inherited by such deceased child shall descend to all the in the same degree of kindred to such deceased child; otherwise, they issue of such other children of the intestate in equal shares, if they are shall take by right of representation.

(7) If the intestate shall leave no lineal descendants or kindred, such real property shall escheat to the United States.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY.

Sec.

Sec.

169. Distribution of personal property. 170. Advancement to widow.

Distribution of SEC. 169. When any person shall die possessed of any personal personal property. property, or of any right to or interest therein, not having lawfully bequeathed the same, such personal property shall be applied and distributed as follows:

-to widow.

-to pay debts.

-to those who would be entitled to real property.

-to husband.

(1) If the intestate shall leave a widow, she shall be allowed all articles of her apparel and ornament, according to the degree and estate of the intestate, and such property and provisions for the use and support of herself and minor children as shall be allowed and ordered in pursuance of chapter eighty-three of the Code of Civil Procedure; and this allowance shall be made as well when the widow waives the provision made for her in the will of her husband as when he dies intestate.

(2) The personal property of the intestate remaining after such allowance shall be applied to the payment of the debts of the deceased and the charges and expenses of administration as provided by law. (3). The residue, if any, of the personal property shall be distributed among the persons who would be entitled to the real property of the intestate, as provided in this code, and in the like proportion or share, except as herein otherwise provided.

(4) If the intestate shall leave a husband and issue, such husband shall be entitled to receive one-half of such residue of the personal property; but if the intestate leave a husband and no issue, such husband shall receive the whole of such residue of personal property.