里格斯诉帕尔默案判决书(4)

property rights, be permitted to allege a widowhood which she has wickedly and intentionally created.

我们注意到欧文斯诉欧文斯一案与该案类似，妻子作为从犯因协助谋杀丈夫而犯罪，妻子不能因此而获得寡妇资格。我很不情愿地赞同该案所揭示出的法律原则。制定法规定妻子不幸失去丈夫，会失去支持和保护，法律因此赋予妻子以寡妇资格。但若妻子通过犯罪行为故意使自己失去丈夫的保护和支持，从而使自己成为寡妇，这明显不符合法律规定的目的。正如妻子可能死在丈夫之前，永远不会成为寡妇一样，妻子不能通过犯罪行为而获得利益。该案应该适用这项植根于“自愿招致损害者不得主张所受损害”（Volenti non fit injuria）的原则，妻子以获得财产权利为目的，出于邪恶用心并蓄意造就自己寡妇资格，不得享有寡妇资格。

The facts found entitled the plaintiffs to the relief they sought. The error of the referee was in his conclusion of law. Instead of granting a new trial, therefore, I think the proper judgment upon the facts found should be ordered here. The facts have been passed upon twice with the same result,--first upon the trial of Palmer for murder, and then by the referee in this action. We are therefore of opinion that the ends of justice do not require that they should again come in question. The judgment of the general term and that entered upon the report of the referee should

therefore be reversed, and judgment should be entered as follows: That Elmer E. Palmer and the administrator be enjoined from using any of the personalty or real estate left by the testator for Elmer's benefit; that the devise and bequest in the will to Elmer be declared ineffective to pass the title to him; that by reason of the crime of murder committed upon the grandfather he is deprived of any interest in the estate left by him; that the plaintiffs are the true owners of the real and personal estate left by the testator, subject to the charge in favor of Elmer's mother and the widow of the testator, under the antenuptial agreement, and that the plaintiffs have costs in all the courts against Elmer.

已发现的案件事实应当赋予两名原告获得救济的权利。原审法官的错误在于其法律结论。我个人认为，如果能够重新审理此案，正义的法官应当对已发现的案件事实进行梳理。两次判决所认定的案件事实是相同的——即第一次审判帕尔默认定的案件事实和此次审判认定的案件事实。我们坚持认为正义不能要求他们（犯罪嫌疑人）接受两次审判。原审普通法院的判决以及法官的审判报告应当被撤销，作出如下判决：埃尔默·帕尔默和遗产管理人不能动用立遗嘱人为埃尔默遗赠的任何财产；遗嘱中赠与埃尔默的动产和不动产不发生有效转移；谋杀者埃尔默因其犯罪行为被剥夺获得遗产的权利；两名原告是立遗嘱人动产和不动产的真正继承人，但应由埃尔默的母亲和立遗嘱人的遗孀依据婚前协议来照管，埃尔默承担两原告支付的所有诉讼费。

All concur, except GRAY, J., who reads dissenting opinion, and DANFORTH, J., concurs.

除格雷法官提出不同的法律意见，丹佛斯法官支持该法律意见外，其余法官一致同意该判决。

GRAY, J., (dissenting.) This appeal represents an extraordinary state of facts, and the case, in respect to them, I believe, is without precedent in this state. The respondent, a lad of 16 years of age, being aware of the provisions in his grandfather's will, which constituted him the residuary legatee of the testator's estate, caused his death by poison, in 1882. For this crime he was tried, and was convicted of murder in the second degree, and at the time of the commencement of this action he was serving out his sentence in the state reformatory. This action was brought by two of the children of the testator for the purpose of having those provisions of the will in the respondent's favor canceled and annulled. The appellants' argument for a reversal of the judgment, which dismissed their complaint, is that the respondent unlawfully prevented a revocation of the existing will, or a new will from being made, by his crime; and that he terminated the enjoyment by the testator of his property, and effected his own succession to it, by the same crime. They say that to permit the

respondent to take the property willed to him would be to permit him to take advantage of his own wrong. To sustain their position the appellants' counsel has submitted an able and elaborate brief, and, if I believed that the decision of the question could be effected by considerations of an equitable nature, I should not hesitate to assent to views which commend themselves to the conscience .But the matter does not lie within the domain of conscience. We are bound by the rigid rules of law, which have been established by the legislature, and within the limits of which the determination of this question is confined. The question we are dealing with is whether a testamentary disposition can be altered, or a will revoked, after the testator's death, through an appeal to the courts, when the legislature has by its enactments prescribed exactly when and how wills may be made, altered, and revoked, and apparently, as it seems to me, when they have been fully complied with, has left no room for the exercise of an equitable jurisdiction by courts over such matters. Modern juris prudence, in recognizing the right of the individual, under more or less restrictions, to dispose of his property after his death, subjects it to legislative control, both as to extent and as to mode of exercise. Complete freedom of testamentary disposition of one's property has not been and is not the universal rule, as we see from the provisions of the Napoleonic Code, from the systems of jurisprudence in countries which are modeled upon the Roman law, and from the statutes of many of our states. To the

statutory restraints which are imposed upon the disposition of one's property by will are added strict and systematic statutory rules for the execution, alteration, and revocation of the will, which must be, at least substantially, if not exactly, followed to insure validity and performance. The reason for the establishment of such rules, we may naturally assume, consists in the purpose to create those safeguards about these grave and important acts which experience has demonstrated to be the wisest and surest. That freedom which is permitted to be exercised in the testamentary disposition of one's estate by the laws of the state is subject to its being exercised in conformity with the regulations of the statutes. The capacity and the power of the individual to dispose of his property after death, and the mode by which that power can be exercised, are matters of which the legislature has assumed the entire control, and has undertaken to regulate with comprehensive particularity.

格雷法官（不同意见）：该上诉案揭示出的案件事实是特别的，我相信该上诉案在本州也没有先例可循。被上诉人是一位16岁少年，得知祖父在遗嘱中将大部分剩余遗产指定由他继承，这导致被上诉人在1882年毒死了遗嘱人。被上诉人因此受到审判，被判构成二级谋杀罪，该上诉案提起时，被上诉人还在州少年犯管教所服刑。该上诉案由立遗嘱人的两位女儿提起，她们要求宣告遗嘱中指定被上诉人继承遗产的条款无效并撤销。上诉人要求撤销原审判决，原审判决驳回了

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