Appeal of Breneman

Citations

• 121 Pa. 641
• 15 A. 650
• 1888 Pa. LEXIS 699

Syllabus

<p>1. It is an established rule, at law and in equity, in the Common Pieas and in the Orphans’ Court, that all debts by specialty, unclaimed and unrecognized for twenty years, in the absence of explanatory evidence, are presumed to have been paid; See Gregory v. Commonwealth, and Porter v. Nelson, preceding; Runner’s Appeal, following.</p> <p>2. In the present case, in the distribution of a decedent’s estate in May, 1887, the letters of the decedent written in May, 1868, as to a judgment indebtedness unsatisfied of record from 1860, held.to contain an acknowledgment of the existence of the indebtedness sufficient to repel the presumption of payment.</p> <p>8. That a guardian should account for and pay over to his wards an uncollectible debt, represented in the note or judgment of an insolvent debtor, is not such a voluntary payment as will discharge the debtor when subsequently able to pay.</p>