A Captain's Fortune and the Daughters Who Couldn't Prove They Were Family
Washington's supreme court threw out a contest over the $500,000 estate of Port Blakely mill man William Renton because the claimants could not show they were adopted.
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The state supreme court yesterday dismissed the contest of Elizabeth W. Sackman and Mary A. Gaffney against the will of Capt. William Renton, founder and manager of the Port Blakely mill. The decision sustains Judge Denney, of Kitsap county, and closes one of the most prominent will cases in the history of the state.
Capt. Renton died at Port Blakely in the summer of 1890, leaving a will dated in 1876. By its terms his property was bequeathed to his wife during her life, with the provision that if she died before him the property should go to his two sisters, including Margaret A. Campbell, now residents of this city.
After the will was probated, Elizabeth W. Sackman and Mary A. Gaffney, daughters of Mrs. Renton by a former marriage, filed a contest on the usual grounds of undue influence and unsound mind. They claimed the entire estate under a will dated 1879, which left all the property to his wife absolutely, except for small bequests to his sisters. The contestants also claimed that they were adopted children of Capt. Renton, since only parties interested in an estate under Washington law may contest a will.
While the proceedings were pending in Kitsap county, Judge Denney ordered the contestants to amend their petition to show under what law and at what time they were adopted. In amending, they admitted their inability to make such a showing, and Judge Denney dismissed their contest. They appealed, and the supreme court affirmed the ruling. The contestants were not interested in the estate and therefore were not entitled to wage a contest: they had failed to show by their pleading that they were the adopted children of Capt. Renton. Nor could they claim under the will, because Mrs. Renton died before Capt. Renton, and the legacy to her lapsed. The wife was not a 'relative' within the meaning of the statute preventing the lapsing of legacies under such circumstances.
The decision is an important one, as the estate is estimated at about $500,000. Struve, Allen, Hughes & McMicken represented the Campbell interests.
“The decision is an important one, as the estate is estimated in the neighborhood of $500,000.”
Port Blakely was a company mill town whose fortune was built on timber; today the site is a quiet Bainbridge Island shoreline. The case is a reminder that who counts as family—and who inherits—has always been settled in court as much as at home.
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