Beringer v. Lutz

Citations

• 179 Pa. 1
• 37 A. 640
• 1897 Pa. LEXIS 594

Syllabus

<p>Husband and wife — Resulting trust — Evidence.</p> <p>Where a married woman seeks to establish a resulting trust in land the record title of which is in her husband, she must show by evidence that is clear and satisfactory, first, that she paid a portion of the purchase money for the land in controversy; second, that it was paid upon an agreement that she was to have the title to the land or such portion of it as she paid for; and third, that the money so paid belonged to her as her separate estate. The resulting trust must be impressed on the title when it passes to the alleged trustee, and cannot be engrafted upon it afterwards. The agreement to advance the purchase money, or a portion of it, and take title to the land, or a proportional part, must precede or be contemporaneous with the purchase.</p> <p>In proceedings by a purchaser at sheriff’s sale to recover possession, the wife of the defendant in the execution claimed an interest in the land under an alleged trust resulting from the payment of $2,000 of the purchase money. The evidence tended to show that some years before, the wife’s father gave a deed for thirteen acres of land to the husband, and took his note for $400, the price of the land, and charged the note to his daughter’s share in his estate. This was done because the father had an erroneous opinion that a married woman could not lawfully take title to land. The husband and wife went upon the land, improved it, and subsequently sold it with other land of the husband, and divided the money according to their respective interests. The money thus received by the wife, together with other moneys received from her father’s estate, made up the $2,000 contributed towards the purchase money of the land in controversy. The evidence for the wife tended to show that she furnished $100, the hand money paid upon the preliminary contract, and $1,000, the amount paid upon the delivery of the deed; that this was furnished upon the express agreement with her hu