VA. WOMAN'S BEQUEST SPLITS PAIR OF RESCUE SQUADS

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

DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992                   TAG: 9201190181
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTROSS                                LENGTH: Short
VA. WOMAN'S BEQUEST SPLITS PAIR OF RESCUE SQUADS
Two county rescue squads are locked in a dispute over $600,000 bequeathed by a 105-year-old woman.
Martha Virginia Sanford, who wrote her will in 1979 and died in 1990, left her life savings to "the rescue squad, Hague, Westmoreland County, Va."
Sanford credited the volunteers with saving her life on several occasions, according to her lawyer, John L. Melnick of Arlington.
The Westmoreland Rescue Squad was the only rescue unit in the eastern half of the county when Sanford wrote the will. Volunteers there think the money is theirs.
But a year before Sanford died, the Montross Rescue Squad volunteers began serving the area where she lived. They are seeking a cut.
The will is now at the Virginia Supreme Court, where justices are expected to decide next month where the bequest belongs.
Westmoreland Circuit Court Joseph E. Spruill has sided with the Montross squad, saying each group is entitled to a share. He said Westmoreland should get 55 percent and Montross should get 45 percent, based on the number of emergency calls they receive.
The Westmoreland squad is appealing his ruling in the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in the case last week.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a written opinion by Feb. 28.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB