―The declaratory judgment statute merely creates a procedural device whereby the courts may make a declaration of rights without the executory or coercive relief embodied in a conventional judgment.‖
How later courts described this case
- ―The declaratory judgment statute merely creates a procedural device whereby the courts may make a declaration of rights without the executory or coercive relief embodied in a conventional judgment.‖
- “extrinsic evidence is only used to resolve ambiguity, “not to rewrite [a] will or do violence to its terms”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
HAWTHORNE, Justice
(dissenting).
I am in accord with the reasoning and the conclusion of the district judges and the Court of Appeal that the contested provision of Mr. Dumesnil’s will bequeath *1061 ed to his wife a usufruct rather than the fee ownership of his property. This conclusion is reached from the wording of the will and without resort to extrinsic evidence. I do not think that the court should disregard and write out of the will the words “enjoyment and usufruct during her life”. The last clause, “to do with, enjoy and dispose of as she pleases, and as a thing belonging to her” (which seems to have caused most of the trouble), would have been completely unnecessary if the fee ownership were being given.