The House was required to interpret a will where a benefit was to pass only if someone was to die ‘and not have children.’
Held: ‘It is ‘the universal rule’, that in construing statutes, as well as in construing all other written instruments ‘the grammatical and ordinary sense of the word is ‘to be adhered to, unless that would lead to some absurdity, or some repugnance or inconsistency with the rest of the instrument, in which case the grammatical and ordinary sense of the words may be modified, so as to avoid that absurdity ad inconsistency, but no further’.
Judges:
Lord Wensleydale
Citations:
[1857] EngR 335, (1857) 6 HLC 61, (1857) 10 ER 1216, [1857] 6 HL Cas 61
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Vacher and Sons Ltd v London Society of Compositors HL 18-Nov-1912
Lord Moulton said that the danger of departing from the ordinary meaning of unambiguous provisions is that ‘it may degrade into mere judicial criticism of the propriety of the acts of the Legislature’.
Lord Haldane LC after stating that . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Wills and Probate
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.189957
