Commonwealth v. Crompton

Citations

• 137 Pa. 138
• 20 A. 417
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 963

Syllabus

<p>1. Proceedings to escheat the estate of a decedent who died intestate, without heirs or any known kindred, are regulated by the statutes, and these statutes permit any person, in whose hands or possession the goods and chattels are found, to traverse the inquisition in the Court of Common Pleas.</p> <p>2. Even though, the traverser being an administrator of the decedent and claiming to hold the goods and chattels in dispute in his own right under an alleged gift, an effort was made to surcharge him with them upon a pending proceeding in the Orphans’ Court, the right of the traverser and the jurisdiction of the Common Pleas cannot be doubted.</p> <p>3. And, that the administrator noted upon the inventory filed and in the account presented that the disputed goods specified were in his hands, but held in his own right as a gift from the decedent, will not estop him from asserting his claim upon a traverse of the inquisition in the Court of Common Pleas.</p> <p>4. Where it is apparent from the evidence that an absolute and present gift of non-negotiable securities, e. g., shares of railroad stock, is intended, a gift of them, valid against a volunteer, may be made by delivery to the donee without assignment or indorsement in writing, and without compliance with the forms required by the corporation.</p>