Estate of Seltzer

Citations

• 189 Pa. 574
• 42 A. 289
• 1899 Pa. LEXIS 695

Syllabus

<p>Will—Election to take against will—Husband and wife—Bights of survivor—Act of May 4, 1855.</p> <p>The intent of the Act of May 4, 1855, P. L. 430, was not to create a special rule to be applied in each case according to the circumstances of the particular husband and wife in respect to children, but to produce equality by a general rule giving husbands and wives equal and similar rights under similar circumstances. The share which the survivor takes under the act is determined by the existence or absence of issue of the decedent, and is in nowise affected by having or not having issue of his or her own.</p> <p>Under the act of May 4, 1855, where a husband elects to take against the will of his wife, who has died without children, he is entitled to one half of the personal estate, absolutely, and one half of the real estate, for life, although he himself may have children by a former wife so that if he had died first, his wife would have been entitled to only one third of his personal estate and dower in one third of his realty.</p>