Bender v. Luckenbach

Citations

• 162 Pa. 18
• 29 A. 295
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 936

Syllabus

<p>Sale — Beal estate — Conversion—Decedents' estates — Parties.</p> <p>A sale of real estate is in equity a conversion of the land into money. The vendor’s interest becomes a chose in action, which in ease of death goes to his personal representative, and the legal title is held only as a security for the payment of the debt.</p> <p>A father entered into an article of agreement to sell a house and lot to his son. The consideration was not to be paid until after the death of the father and his wife, and then to the heirs and legal representatives of the father. The father, by his will subsequently made, bequeathed his entire estate after his wife’s death to his three children. After the mother’s death two of the children brought an equitable ejectment against the son to whom the house and lot had been sold, to enforce the payment of the purchase money. The court below refused to permit the executor to intervene as a plaintiff in the suit. A verdict and judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiffs. Both the son and the executor appealed. Held.:</p> <p>(1) That the agreement of sale of the house and lot between the father and son worked a conversion in equity.</p> <p>(2) That the executor as personal representative of the deceased was entitled to tbe fund, and was the only person having the right to use the legal title of the land to enforce the collection of the purchase money.</p> <p>(3) That the executor should be substituted as plaintiff in the suit.</p> <p>(4) That a decree substituting the executor as plaintiff having been entered in the executor’s appeal, the judgment in the son’s appeal should be reversed and a venire facias de novo awarded.</p>