Estate of Blake

Citations

• 134 Pa. 240
• 19 A. 850
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 697

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. When a will, after directing the sale of the testator’s real estate, blends the realty and personalty into one fund for the payment of legacies, and the gift made to residuary legatees is described as consisting of what should be left after the payment of the particular legacies, the latter will be a charge upon the real estate, both because of such blending and because of the form of the residuary bequests.</p> <p>2. If the executor of such will, after a sale of the real estate to himself, subsequently ratified by the parties in interest, settles his account, taking credit for a legacy charged on the land, the interest of which was bequeathed to one person for life and the principal to others at her death, and thereafter treats himself as a trustee of such legacy, it'becomes a personal debt, which, in the event of his death will be a lien upon his property paramount to his will.</p> <p>3. When a will directs that the testator’s debts and legacies shall be paid by his sons out of the farms devised to them, an additional provision that each son shall pay in proportion to the amount- of the valuation placed upon his farm in the will, fixes the rule for adjusting the relative liability of the sons as between themselves, but in no way affects the right of creditors to be paid in full, upon a distribution of the proceeds of sale of one of the farms.</p> <p>4. Such a testamentary charge of debts and legacies cannot affect the right of priority over legacies which is given to debts by § 48, act of February 24, 1834, P. L. 82, nor does it attempt to change the legal rule settling their relation to each other; ■ wherefore, upon distribution in pursuance of a sale under the act of April 18, 1853, P. L. 503, the debts so charged must be first paid in full.</p>