Newman v. Bost

Joseph Van Pelt, dying and childless, summoned his longtime housekeeper Julia Newman (plaintiff) to his bedside, handed her a set of keys, and told her he wanted her to have everything in the house. One key opened a locked bureau containing a $3,000 life-insurance policy, and the house held other furniture and personal items, including belongings kept in Newman's own bedroom, as well as a piano Van Pelt had once called "Miss Julia's piano" but kept in the parlor, insured in his own name, and whose insurance proceeds he kept after it burned. After Van Pelt died, administrator F.W. Bost (defendant) took possession of everything in the house, collecting the $3,000 life-insurance payout and $300 in piano-insurance proceeds and selling most of the house's contents, including items from Newman's own room. Newman sued for the property as a gift from Van Pelt, and a jury found for her; Bost appealed.