Fife v. Miller

Citations

• 165 Pa. 612
• 30 A. 1015
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1053

Syllabus

<p>Will— Codicil—Life-estate—Marketable tille.</p> <p>Testator by his will directed as follows: “To my daughter Margaret I will the mansion, house, already mentioned, and with it fifty acres of land and twenty-three pei'ches, more or less, to be used and controlled by her and her husband during her lifetime for their own benefit and advantage, subject, however, to the dower already mentioned, and to the legacies yet to be mentioned (and in case she dies without children her husband, if he survive her, shall have the use of it for his benefit during his lifetime, and then it is my will that it shall go to and be inherited by my grandchildren, viz: The children of my son Alexander and daughter Rachel, both deceased, to be theirs and their heirs after them forever, and to be divided amongst them in equal proportions.) ” By a codicil he directed as follows: “Codicil. 1st. I hereby alter that part of the will at the end of the twenty-second line, that now is canceled, to the middle of the thirty-second line, marked in parenthesis, so that it shall read that my son-in-law, Samuel Fife, instead of only having a life estate in it, shall possess it as his own without let or hindrance, except as subject to the legacies, of which he is to bear his part, as mentioned in the body of this will.” Held (1) that, under the will, Samuel Fife would only be entitled to take in case he survived his wife, or she died without children, and that no change was effected by the codicil as to the contingency upon which he should take; (2) that Mr. and Mrs. Fife could not together make a marketable title to the land.</p>