Cragin's Estate

Citations

• 274 Pa. 1
• 117 A. 445
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 626

Syllabus

<p>Deed — Delivery—Acknowledgment—Statement written on envelope as to recording — Possession—Evidence—Presumption—Burden of proof — Husband and wife — Conditional delivery — Conscience of chancellor.</p> <p>1. Generally speaking the delivery of a deed is complete when it is acknowledged before a proper officer as being signed, sealed and delivered without an act, expression or writing indicating an intention to qualify this formal act.</p> <p>2. Where a deed has been acknowledged and the grantee has manual possession thereof, there is a presumption of delivery, but this may be rebutted.</p> <p>3. The presumption, however, stands against the grantor, and the burden is on him to destroy it by clear and positive proof that there was no delivery and that it was so understood at the time.</p> <p>4. Where such a deed, absolute and complete in itself, is attacked as having been intended to take effect after the death of the grantee, there is a further presumption that the title is in conformity with the deed, and it should not be dislodged except by clear, precise, convincing and satisfactory evidence to the contrary that will satisfy the mind and conscience of á chancellor.</p> <p>5. The rule should not be relaxed in case of a deed executed and acknowledged by a wife to her husband, where the husband remains in manual possession of the instrument until his death; and this is the case although the husband wrote on the envelope containing the deed words to the effect that the deed was to be recorded upon his wife’s death, if she died before him.</p> <p>6. In such case the presumption of delivery is strengthened, where it appears that the deed remained in the possession of the husband for twenty years, and that three years before his death he made a will in which he specifically dealt with and directed a sale of the property included in the deed.</p> <p>7. The facts that the husband conveyed the land to his stenographer, who in turn conveyed it to the wife, both deeds being