Edmundson's Estate

Citations

• 259 Pa. 429
• 103 A. 277
• 2 A.L.R. 1150
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 429

Syllabus

<p>Contracts — Contracts for benefit of third person — Beneficiary’s right to sue — Evidence—Deeds—Consideration—Parol evidence of different consideration — Witnesses — Competency — Testimony of surviving party — Act of May 28, 1887, P. L. 158, Sec. 5, Clause e.</p> <p>. 1. To the rule that at common law no one could maintain an action upon a contract to which he was not a party, there are exceptions where the promise to pay the debt' of a third person rests upon the fact that money or' property is placed in the hands of the promisor for that particular purpose, and where one buys out the stock of a tradesman and undertakes to take the place, fill the contracts and pay the debts of his vendor.</p> <p>2. Parol evidence is competent for the purpose of showing that the consideration for the conveyance of real estate is other than that expressed in the deed.</p> <p>3. To disqualify a surviving party to a contract from testifying, he must not only be a surviving and remaining party but must have an interest adverse to the right of the deceased party, under the Act of May 23, 1887, P. L. 1S8, Section 5, Clause e. It is the adverse interest, not the adverse testimony, that disqualifies a witness.</p> <p>4. Where a person conveys real estate, on the grantee’s express oral promise to pay, to a third person, the amount received from the subsequent sale of the property, and thereafter the grantee dies without having fulfilled the promise, the grantor is a competent witness to testify in behalf of the beneficiary’s claim against the grantee’s estate.</p> <p>5. A claimant against a decedent’s estate presented evidence that a conveyance of an interest in certain real estate had been made by claimant’s mother to decedent in her lifetime on decedent’s oral promise that in case she should sell it during her lifetime she would pay the claimant the full ¿mount invested therein by plaintiff’s father, and if she did not sell same would bequeath said amount to claimant. The deed recited