University of Virginia Library

I am sending you be registered mail (fully insured,
for $102,000), a United States Certificate of Indebtedness
No. 647 for $100,000. dated January 2, and due June 3, 1919,
the interest of which amounts to $1,873.97 and my cheque
for $48,126.03 and including the cheque for $5,000. that
I handed you in Charlottesville makes a total of $155,000.

The purpose of this gift is to establish in the University
of Virginia a School of Fine Arts to comprise first, a
School of Art and Architecture, second, a School of Music,
and the income from these funds is tobe used in perpetuity
for the use and development of these schools.

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The sum of $75,000. of this amount I desire
to be allotted to the School of Art, consisting of
Art and Architecture, and the sum of $80,000. to the
School of Music.

I sincerely hope that the University will see its
way clear to give many lectures and concerts on the
above subjects so that the people will appreciate
more than ever before that the University belongs to them
and that it exists for them.

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your
letter of March 14th. I have also received, by registered
mail, the United States Certificate of Indebtedness No.
647 for $100,000. dated January 2, and due June 3, 1919,
the interest of which amounts to $1,873.97. I have also
received your check for $48,126.03. I have previously received
from your hands a check for $5,000. The total of
all these receipts, as you state in your letter, is $155,000.

I note that the purpose of this splendid
gift is designated by you to found at the University of
Virginia a School of Fine Arts, comprising, first, a School
of Art and Architecture; secondly, a School of Music.

I further note that you desire the income
from these funds to be used in perpetuity for the use and
development of these schools and for no other purpose.

I beg to renew my expression of profound
gratitude, on behalf of the University for this wise

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I shall bring the whole matter, for formal consideration,
to the Rector and Visitors at their next
meeting, and will than communicate to you what I am
sure they will command me to do, the expression of their
gratitude for the immense new strength that your foresight
has given to the University of Virginia in increasing
its ability to serve and strengthen the people
of the commonwealth and of the nation.

As the parents of the late Farrell Dabney Minor,
Jr., who graduated from the Law School of the University
of Virginia in June, 1911, and who died in France on
August 29, 1918 from wounds received in battle, it is
our desire to erect some usefull and enduring memorial
which will permanently associate his name with the University
of Virginia, - his, as well as his father's, Alma
Mater. This motive springs not alone from the promptings
of parental affection for the memory of an only son, -
and an only child, - but from the wish to give some
outward expression to the love and loyalty that he
cherished for the University.

We are, therefore, transmitting to the Bursar of
the University, through the hands of our kinsman, Professor
Raleigh C. Minor, Ten Thousand Dollars, par value, of
United States Liberty Bonds, of the following description:

Eleven Bonds (being nine of the denomination of $1,000.00
each and two of the denomination of $500.00 each) with
the proper transfers duly authenticated endorsed on each
bond, and more particularly described as follows:

(a) Five Bonds, each of the par value of $1,000.00,
numbered 35473 to 35477, both inclusive, Second Liberty
Loan, converted, interest payable semi-annually on May
15th and November 15th, each bond registered in the name

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(b) Four Bonds, each of the par value of $1,000.00,
numbered, respectively, 91548 to 91551, both inclusive,
Third Liberty Loan, converted, interest payable semiannually
on March 15th and September 15th, Bonds numbered
91548 and 91549 registered in the name of Mrs. Eleanor
S. Minor, and Bonds numbered 91550 and 91551 registered
in the name of Farrell D. Minor.

(c) Two Bonds, each of the par value of $500.00,
numbered, respectively, 112516 and 112517, Third Liberty
Loan, converted, interest payable semi-annually on March
15th and September 15th, each Bond registered in the name
of Mrs. Eleanor S. Minor.

We desire that these Bonds, or the securities into
which they may hereafter be converted, be held in perpetual
trust by the Rector and Visitors of the University of
Virginia, for the uses and purposes following:

1. This donation is to be entitled and known as the
"Farrell Dabney Minor, Jr., Donation".

2. The principal of this fund (including additions
thereto, hereinafter provided for) is to be preserved intact
in securities approved by the financial authorities
of the University.

Of the net income in each year, corresponding with
the fiscal year of the University, seventy-five per cent
(subject to the provisions of the paragraph next succeeding)
is to be devoted to the upkeep and the promotion of the
general usefulness of the University Law School Library,
chiefly in the purchase of books, other library conveniences
and accessories, but exclusive of salaries to
employes or permanent housing or preservation. The object
of the donation is rather the enlargement of the facilities
and resources of the Law Library, that as a relief to the
general financial budget of the Law School. In expressing
these purposes, however, it is not the desire of the donors
to limit the reasonable discretion of the Rector and
Visitors in arranging their annual appropriations.

The remaining twenty-five per cent of the net income
in each fiscal year we desire to be turned back into the
principal account and deposited promptly in a Savings Bank,
at interest, until a sufficient amount is collected to be
conveniently invested in other securities, to be added
to the principal securities held to the credit of the donation.
The entire interest accruing upon the funds thus
deposited in the Savings Bank while they are deposited there,

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3. The Rectorand Visitors are empowered to convert
the securities mentioned, from time to time, into
such other securities or forms of investment, as they
may deem wise, such substituted securities or investments
to be held on similar trusts.

4. The donors should desire that there be placed on
the front inside cover of volumes purchased under this
trust, a simple book-plate, making reference to the donation.
The donors ask the privilege of providing, at their
own expense, an engraved plate for this purpose.

5. The donors request that this letter of donation,
along with the accompanying brief sketch of Lieutenant
Minor's life, be entered in the permanent records of the
University, and that a certified copy of this letter be
delivered to the Dean of the Law School.

In the hope that the acceptance of this trust may be
agreeable to the Rector and Visitors, and with the expression
of high regard for yourself and of deep affection for the
University, we are, dear Sir,

I have this day received your letter of
the 28th inst., with the enclosure, giving so moving and
interesting an account of the life and service of your son,
Farrell Dabney Minor, Jr. I have read with the greatest

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I shall bring your communication before the Board
at their first meeting in the latter part of April, and
shall take care that every detail of the bequest be understood,
the sketch of Lieutenant Minor's life entered
upon the permanent records of the University and your whole
communication made a part of our records. I hope we shall
have the liberty to print in our publications as well the
brief sketch of Lieutenant Minor. I shall want to make
public announcement of this gift at our Founder's Day
ceremony, April 12, prior to the actual meeting of the
Board.

Assuring you of my own deep appreciation of this
splendid act and of my desire to see that the purposes herein
indicated be carried out, I am,

My wife and I appreciate your kind letter
of the 31st ult. I have written my kinsman, Prof. R. C.
Minor, consenting to the publication of the sketch.

Responding to your request for the expression of a
further opinion in connection with the matter of the
Oliver H. Payne bequest to the University, in view of
supposed new evidence, I beg to submit as follows:

As gathered from your oral statement to me of the
additional facts developed since the preparation of my
former opinion, they are these:

After the death of the testator there was found, among
his private papers, a typewritten list of the legatees
mentioned in the will, with the amounts of their respective
bequests set opposite their names; the name of the University
of Virginia, in this list showing a legacy of $200,000.00
appears to have a pencil line drawn through it, extended
also through the figures $200,000.00, and in the margin
opposite the erasure appears the entry, in pencil, "Paid
$250,000.00;" and this entry is conceded to be in the handwriting
of the testator.

The question upon which I am asked to submit an
opinion is: Do these additional facts, assuming them conclusively
extablished, so alter the legal situation as to
require a modicication of the opinion already submitted in
this connection?

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It does not appear when this alteration in the list
was made, as it is without date, and I presume that the
date cannot be established. It may have been made before,
or subsequently to the gift inter vivos. The strong
probabilities are, however, that it was done subsequently,
as it is scarcely conceivable that the testator should
have ear marked the legacy as paid before the actual consummation
of the gift.

Anterior to these recently discovered facts, the situation
was this:

The testator, in his will, made a bequest of $200,000.00
to the University; subsequently he handed to Dr. Alderman,
President of the University; a sealed envelope, in which
was enclosed a check for $250,000 ($50,000. more than the
amount of the legacy), accompanied by a letter of gift, in
which the purposes of the gift were named, but with no
reference therein to the legacy, and no indication that the
gift was intended as a satisfaction of the legacy. Such
intention, however, was plainly expressed in an oral statement
to President Alderman, made contemporaneously with the
act of handing over the letter and check.

On this state of facts, I have heretofore expressed
the opinion that the question whether or not this gift
was meant in satisfaction of the legacy rests solely on
the testator's intention; that, unexplained, there is
no legal presumption of such an intention; that where the
gift is made by written documents, as in this case, the intention
of the testator to make the gift substitutional
must likewise be expressed in writing—or, otherwise
stated, that parol declarations, though made contemporaneously,
are inadmissible to import into the written documents
an intention not properly appearing therein. And that,
therefore, the University is legally entitled to the legacy
in addition to the gift already received.

Is this result alteres by the circumstance that, after
the gift was thus complete and in the donee's possession—
and after donor and donee have separated (we are without
information as to the interval of time) the testator
made an unsigned pencil entry in his private papers, indicating
an intention not found in the written documents
of gift delivered to the donee?

The question is not without difficulty. It is perfectly
clear that after the gift was complete by delivery to the
donee, and the separation of the parties, it was not competent
for the donor, by his sole act, to alter the legal effect
of the gift purely as such—that is, as vesting complete
and unconditional ownership in the donee. The gift itself

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As already shown, where the gift is made by a written
document, as here, the intention that it shall operate in
satisfaction of the previous legacy cannot be established
by parol testimony—since this would violate the rule
that written instruments may not be contradicted or altered
by parol evidence. Hence there must be written evidence
of testator's intention to overcome the effect of the
written documents of gift. Written evidence of what
character? Obviously declarations written by the testator
himself. But written when? Must these written declarations
be contemporaneous with the gift, or would declarations
written subsequently temporaneous with the gift, or would
subsequently suffice? Undoubtedly to effect the gift itself,
these declarations must be not only written, but contemporaneous,
and communicated to and accepted by the donee. But
our question is not one of a bilateral transaction—in
which the written documents are to be interpreted according
to what Mr. Wigmore terms the "integrated" intention of both
parties— but ours is a purely unilateral transaction, and
its effect dependent solely on the intention of one actor
with respect to a res (i.e. the legacy) in his sole control
and ownership. It is his intention solely that is the
object of our search; and that intention must be expressed
in writing. The intention or willingness of the donee
to receive the gift in satisfaction is immaterial, and not
in question.

The pencil entry made by Col. Payne undoubtedly and
clearly expressed an intention existing in his mind at the
time the entry was made (whenever that was) that the
gift should go, or had gone, in payment or satisfaction of
the legacy. But assuming that the entry was made at a
time subsequent to the gift, is this competent written
evidence to establish the required intention? The time
at which the required intention must have existed is, of
course, the moment of making the gift. If the intention
that the gift should satisfy the legacy did not exist at that
moment, clearly no intention formed subsequently could affect
the past completed transaction. If, therefore, the pencil
entry indicated the existence of an intention of satisfaction,
existing only at the time of the entry, the entry would be
incompetent evidence. The intention cannot operate ex

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We have then reached this situation: An act done,
the effect of which on an existing will of the actor, depends
on the intention with which the first act was done—
and this intention, under the rule of law applicable to the
circumstances here, must be established by written declarations
of the actor. Written but unsigned declarations
of the actor, made subsequent to the act in question, are
offered in evidence. I see no escape from the admission
of this evidence, unless the rule involved requires that
such written declarations must have been contemporaneous
with the act. In my opinion this rule does not require
that such declarations shall be contemporaneous. The
intention must have been contemporaneous with the act,
buth the declarations may have been subsequent, provided
they establish the intention previously existing.

Certainly in those cases where parol declarations
of a testator are properly admitted to prove the intention
with which an act was done, as affecting legacies in a
previous will, such declarations are not confined to
those made contemporaneously. The pencil entry here is expressed
in the past tense "Paid $250,000." Written at large,
the entry would read "I have already paid this legacy by
a gift of $250,000." "Paid" here can mean nothing else
but "satisfied"— and this conclusion is reinforced, if it
needs reinforcement, by the erasure of the name of the legatee
and the amount of the legacy, in the typewritten list.
Hence, the entrymay be read thus: "Having paid the University
of Virginia $250,000. in my life time, I declare
that my intention in making the gift was to satisfy the
legacy, an intention of which I have not repented at the
date of this entry."

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If these premises are sound, I see no escape from the
conclusion that this pencil memorandum is admissible in
evidence to establish the testator's intention to satisfy
the legacy by the gift—and, if admitted, that it is sufficient
evidence to establish that intention. If so, the
conclusion is inevitable that the University is not legally
entitled to the legacy.

The only hope of avoiding this conclusion is to
assail the legal premises on which it is based. They seem
sound to me.

Whereas Oliver H. Payne, late of the City of
New York, died on the 27th day of June, 1917, leaving a
Last Will and Testament dated the 7th day of September,
1915, and the same was thereafter duly admitted to probate
by the Surrogate's Court of the County of New York,
and letters testamentary thereon were issued out of said
court to the Executors named in said Will; and

Whereas the said will contained a legacy of two
hundred thousand dollars ($200,000.) to the University
of Virginia; and

Whereas on or about the 10th day of July, 1916,
said Oliver H. Payne gave to Dr. Edwin A. Alderman,
President of the University of Virginia, the sum of Two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000.) to be held
by him for account of the University, and stated, in substance,
that he had made in his then existing will a
legacy to the University of Virginia but that he did not
wish the University to wait until his death to receive
said legacy and therefore proposed to make a present
gift thereof; and

Whereas the question arose after the death of
the said Oliver H. Payne as to whether said gift of Two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000.) did not
operate as an ademption or satisfaction of said legacy
of Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000.), and the Rector
and Visitors of the University of Virginia, having examined
into the facts and being advised upon said facts
as they then appeared that they were legally entitled
to the legacy, passed a resolution at a meeting of the
Board held November 27th, 1917, to the effect that they
would not be justified in renouncing said legacy; and

Whereas further investigation of said facts
and the presentation of additional evidence, including

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NOW, THEREFORE, be it

RESOLVED, That the University of Virginia, acting
through the Rector and Visitors of the University, does
hereby renounce and disclaim the said legacy of Two
hundred thousand dollars ($200,000.) bequeathed to it in
and by the said Last Will and Testament of the said Oliver
H. Payne, and all right, title and interest therein, and
that the officers of the University be and they are hereby
authorized to execute a formal renunciation of said legacy
under the seal of the University and to deliver the same
to the Executors of said will.

And RESOLVED FURTHER that the officers of the University
be and they hereby are authorized to execute in the
name and under the seal of the University, a waiver of
the issue and service of a citation in any proceeding
which may hereafter be instituted by the Executors
of the Last Will and Testament of said Oliver H. Payne
for the judicial settlement of their accounts, and to
deliver the same to said Executors.

Upon motion the meeting adjourned,

It was my intention and understanding
in making the gift of $155,000. for the establishment of
a School of Fine Arts, that $5,000. or as much thereof
as might be necessary, should be used outright for the
purchase of equipping the School of Art and Architecture.