
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 1, 1991                   TAG: 9102010767
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTROSS                                LENGTH: Medium

TWO RESCUE SQUADS TOLD TO SHARE MONEY FROM WOMAN'S WILL

Two Westmoreland County rescue squads will share $500,000 from a disputed will that left assets to a squad that has since split to form the two rescue units, a judge has ruled.

Circuit Judge Joseph Spruill ruled that the Westmoreland County Volunteer Rescue Squad and the Montross Volunteer Rescue Squad should share the Martha Virginia Sanford estate.

Sanford's 1977 will identified "the rescue squad-Hague, Westmoreland County, Va.," as her beneficiary based on a telephone book listing for the Westmoreland squad.

Twelve years later, members of the Westmoreland squad resigned to form the Montross squad, which serves some of the territory once covered by the Westmoreland squad.

When Sanford died last January at the age of 105, the Montross squad argued it was entitled to a part of the bequest.

In an opinion written Jan. 16 but not officially entered as a court order, Spruill said that when the will was written the Westmoreland squad served roughly two-thirds of the county.

"A portion of those citizens can now benefit only if the Montross squad is included in this bequest," the judge wrote.

Based on the area that the squads serve, Spruill apportioned 55 percent of the value of the bequest to the Westmoreland squad. The Montross squad is due a 45 percent share, he ruled.

The third squad in the county, the Colonial Beach Rescue Squad, asked to be considered but was not included in the distribution. Its service area never included the central portion of the county where Sanford lived.

Her estate consists of her house and farmland near Nomini Grove and investments valued at about $500,000.

by CNB