Bassett v. Hawk

Citations

• 118 Pa. 94
• 11 A. 802
• 1888 Pa. LEXIS 371

Syllabus

<p>The will of a testator, who died in 1843, devised land “ to my son Daniel,, to his use as long as he shall live, and to his legal heirs, if he have any, at his death; and if my son Daniel do not have any legal heirs at his death, then, and in that ease,.....I will it to be given to my grandchildren, Charlotte, Mary and Columbus.” Daniel conveyed in 1850, and his grantees and their grantee, the defendant, took and held possession under his title thereafter. Columbus died in 1852, leaving a. mother; Mary died in 1857, leaving a son; Daniel died in 1873 without lawful children. In 1881, Charlotte, who survived, conveyed a parcel of the land devised, and the title of her grantee passed to plaintiff, who> brought ejectment in 1882. Held:</p> <p>1. That the devise to Daniel, being made prior to the act of 1855, under the rule of Shelley’s Case, was of an estate in fee-tail.</p> <p>2. That, as the devise over to the grandchildren was not dependent upon a contingency attached to their capacity to take, but to an event independent of and not affecting their capacity either to take or transmit, their remainder was vested from the testator’s death.</p> <p>3. That, under the foregoing, the statute of limitations, § 2 of act of April 13, 1859, P. L. 603, would affect by its bar, not only the tenant in tail, but the remaindermen..</p>