Fidelity Title & Trust Co. v. Chapman

Citations

• 226 Pa. 312
• 75 A. 428
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 760

Syllabus

<p>Payment — Presumption of payment — Evidence.</p> <p>1. The presumption of payment of a debt secured by a specialty runs from the time the debt is demandable, and, with nothing appearing on the face of the instrument showing that during the twenty years following its maturity the debtor had paid anything on account or done anything in acknowledgment of the continuing existence of the debt, it is presumed to have been paid after the twenty years have passed by.</p> <p>2. While the presumption of payment after the lapse of twenty years may be rebutted, the evidence to rebut it must be satisfactory and convincing, and this is especially so when the suit is not brought until after the debtor's death.</p> <p>3. Whether certain facts relied upon to rebut the presumption of payment are true is a question of fact for the jury, but whether, if true, they are sufficient to rebut, is for the court.</p> <p>4. A mortgage made by a mother to a son payable in five years with the privilege of paying the debt within the five years will, after the expiration of more than twenty-six years after the mortgage had been given, and twenty-three years after the death of the mother, be presumed to have been paid at some time within the five years before the maturity of the mortgage; and this presumption is greatly, if not conclusively, strengthened by the fact that in the account filed by the mother’s administrator no credit was taken for the payment of the mortgage, and it is not even mentioned; and by the further fact that neither the mortgage nor bond appeared among the effects of the son turned over to his committee in lunacy nearly a year after his mother’s death.</p>