Report on an act for the relief of Isaac Cross and the petition of Lucretia Heyser, 20 February 1816
Albany,
February 20, 1816.
The attorney-general, to whom was committed the engrossed bill, from the honorable the Assembly, entitled "an act for the relief of Isaac Cross," and the petition of Lucretia Heyser, presented to the Senate, reported as follows, to wit:
That the property in question, between the parties, has escheated by the death of Magdalen Cross without heirs; that the escheat was under circumstances which would, in the opinion of the attorney-general, render it proper to release the interest which the state has thus acquired, to such of the connexions of the deceased as should in the opinion of the Legislature, have the most meritorious claims thereto.
That the petitioner, Isaac Cross, for whose relief the bill from the honorable the Assembly has been passed, alledges, and has furnished satisfactory proof thereof, that he was the husband of the deceased; that before his intermarriage with her, it was agreed between them, that the property which they owned should belong to the survivor; and that in her last illness she particularly requested that conveyances might be made out, to vest the title to the property in question in her husband, the said petitioner; but that she died before they were executed.
That the petitioner, Lucretia Heyser, claims the interposition of the Legislature in her behalf, on the ground of her being the mother of the deceased, and that the property was originally purchased by funds derived from her separate property, which she alledges that she advanced to her former husband, and the father of the said Magdalen Cross.
That this last fact is denied by the said Isaac Cross, and not clearly proved by the petitioner.
That in the opinion of the attorney-general, the said Lucretia Heyser, if she is able to prove the case she states, will not be deprived of equitable relief in the court of chancery, by the passage of the bill from the honorable the Assembly, releasing the right of the state to Isaac Cross, who, in the opinion of the attorney-general, has the most meritorious pretensions thereto.
All which is respectfully submitted,
M. VAN BUREN, Attorney-General.