Estate of Dutton

Citations

• 181 Pa. 426
• 37 A. 582
• 1897 Pa. LEXIS 562

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Competency of witness — Assignment of interest in recognizance — Act of May 23, 1887, sec. 5, clause e, P. L. 158.</p> <p>Where a person having an interest in a recognizance in partition, but no interest in the land, executes a mortgage of a supposed interest in the land, and subsequently assigns to another party his interest in the recognizance, the owner of the mortgage is a competent witness after the death of the assignee of the interest in the recognizance to testify, in a proceeding in the orphans’ court to distribute the fund represented by the recognizance, to convei’sations between himself and the mortgagor tending to show that the mortgage was intended as an equitable assignment of the interest in the recognizance.</p> <p>Equitable assignment — Recognizance in partition — Mortgage—Intention.</p> <p>Where an owner of an interest in a recognizance in partition executes a mortgage which describes the property pledged as an interest in the land for which the recognizance was given, and it appears that it was the intention of the parties to pledge the interest in the recognizance, the mortgage will be considered an equitable assignment of the interest in the recognizance.</p> <p>Contract— Consideration.</p> <p>Consideration like every other part of a contract must be the result of agreement. The parties must understand and be influenced to the particular action by something of value or convenience and inconvenience, recognized by all of them as the moving cause. That which is a mere fortuitous result flowing accidentally from an arrangement, but in no degree prompting the actors to it, is not to be esteemed a legal consideration.</p> <p>Assignment — Consideration—Extension of time — Auditor's finding.</p> <p>An auditor’s finding that an assignment of a recognizance as collateral security for a pre-existing debt was not based on an extension of time actually contracted for, and hence without consideration, is as conclusive as a verdict of a jury, a