Dauler's Estate

Citations

• 230 Pa. 204
• 79 A. 498
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 589

Syllabus

<p>Will — Construction—Devise—Description of land — Practice, O. C.— Jurisdiction — Petition for sale.</p> <p>Testator owned a large rectangular piece of land fronting on A street and backing on B street with C street extending along one side of it from A to B streets. Some years before his death he built a fence across the tract about 240 feet back from A street, and divided the land between A street and the fence into several lots. He sold several of these lots from time to time describing them as fronting on A street, each with a depth of 240 feet from that street. At the time of his death he lived in a dwelling house on one of the lots. At that time he had not sold the land in the rear of the fence. By his will he gave the dwelling house with the ground thereto attached to his wife for life, and after her death he devised the same property to his daughter,' describing it as “ the lot of ground and the dwelling, the homestead situated on A street near C street.” He directed his executors to sell all of his estate not devised by his will, and to distribute the proceeds amongst his children. One of the executors petitioned the orphans’ court for an order to sell the land in the rear of the fence. The co-executor, the husband of the daughter to whom the homestead lot was devised, resisted the petition on the ground that his wife took not only the land between A street and the fence, but all in the rear of the fence of the width of the homestead lot. Held, (1) that the devise to the daughter included only the land from A street to the fence; (2) that the orphans’ court had jurisdiction to entertain the petition for the sale of the land.</p>