Armchair Rule Law and Legal Definition
Armchair rule is a rule of interpretation that a judge, called upon to interpret an otherwise unclear legal document, shall take into account the circumstances in which the document was created. If suppose, the testator's intention cannot be ascertained from the plain meaning of the words used, then the court may consider the surrounding circumstances known to the testator when he made his will, the so-called Armchair rule. That is to say, the court may sit in the armchair of the testator, assume the knowledge he had of the extent his assets, the size of his family and his relatives, so far as such things can be ascertained by the evidence.
