The contest over the will of Meyer Chinsky, which has been going on for over a week before Kings County Surrogato George A. Wingate, without a jury, was nearing its end yesterday as the attorney for the proponents of the will, Carl Sherman, and the attorney for the contestants, Adolph Feldblum, summed up their cases. Feldblum represents Chinsky’s nephews.
The last witnesses at the trial were doctors, who offered conflicting testimony. Dr. Luther Warren, professor of medicine at the Long Island College Hospital, declared that, in his opinion, based on the case history charts and bedside notes, Chinsky was mentally deficient after 8 p. m. on the night of April 6, 1933, at which time he was a patient at the Israel Zion Hospital. According to Dr. Luther, Chinsky was incompetent and unable to make a will.
The will had been signed by Chinsky at 12:30 a. m., April 7, and he died soon afterwards. According to the terms of the will, sixty per cent of the profits from the Star Hebrew Publishing Company, which he headed, went to the hospital and forty per cent was left for Rabbi Simon Glaser as executor to distribute among charitable institutions in this country and Palestine. The total amount of his estate exceeds $250,000. Chinsky’s nephews were willed $500 each.
SCARR WILL TESTIFY
Dr. Simon Blatteis, also of Long Island Hospital, who testified Monday for the contestants, was again called to the stand. He said that in his opinion Chinsky was unable to realize what he was doing after 9 p. m. on April 6. Dr. Henry T. Chickering, of the Presbyterian Hospital, was asked by Sherman whether anyone who was not present or attending Chinsky could tell from notes whether the man was competent to make a will at that time. Dr. Chickering declared that he did not think that would be possible.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.