Coulter v. Line

Citations

• 262 Pa. 95
• 104 A. 867
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 596

Syllabus

<p>Judgments — Presumption of payment — Lapse of twenty-one years — Absence of demand — Act of April £7, 1855, P. L. 868— Judgment for defendant n. o. v.</p> <p>1. Under the Act of April 27, 1855, P. L. 368, Section 7, if a person claiming payment of a charge or lien on real estate is unable to show either a claim or demand for payment made by him omthe owner of such real estate, or a payment upon or acknowledgment of the existence of such lien or charge by such owner within twenty-one years, the act operates to raise a conclusive presumption of the release or extinguishment of the demand and declares that it shall thereafter be irrecoverable.</p> <p>2. Judgment was entered in 1878 against a husband by a trustee upon a separate use for defendant’s wife. The judgment was duly revived in 1883 and 1888.^ In 1892 the wife died, naming the defendant the executor of her will, but he never filed an inventory or account. In 1902 the legal plaintiff died and no trustee was appointed to succeed him until 1916. In 1915 defendant died. There was no evidence of demand by the plaintiff or acknowledgment by defendant at any time. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff; the court subsequently entered judgment for defendant n. o. v. Held, there was a conclusive presumption of payment, unaffected by the failure of defendant to have a trustee appointed after the death of the original trustee, and judgment was properly entered for defendant n. o. v.</p>