Flaccus v. Wood

Citations

• 260 Pa. 161
• 103 A. 549
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 486

Syllabus

<p>Decedents’ estates — Wages for domestic services and nursing — ■ Presumption of payment — Rebuttal evidence — Court and jury — Receipt — Release—Legal effect — Construction — Declarations— Consideration.</p> <p>1. Wages for domestic service or nursing are presumed to be paid at stated periods, and when a claim, extending over any considerable period of time, is presented against a decedent’s estate, the burden is upon the claimant to rebut the presumption by affirmative evidence. Loose declarations of the decedent whose estate is sought to be charged are not sufficient to support such a claim.</p> <p>2. In an action to recover wages alleged to be due for domestic service and nursing, the question whether the evidence submitted by the claimant is sufficient to rebut the presumption of payment, is primarily for the court.</p> <p>3. Although a receipt is always open to explanation it is prima facie evidence of payment and settlement and will not be set aside except for weighty reasons and by proof clear and satisfactory, especially after a lapse of years.</p> <p>4. The rule of construction that words used in a release should not be construed to extend beyond the express consideration mentioned, or to operate as a release of indebtedness the parties apparently did not intend, can have no application where the very language used by the parties excludes its use.</p> <p>5. In an action against the executrix of a decedent’s estate to recover for personal services and nursing of decedent for a period of eighteen years, from 1890 to 1908, defendant offered in evidence a receipt dated 1906, signed by claimant and deceased, and providing, inter alia, “this being a full, and final settlement between us up to March 1, 1906, the said [deceased] on March 1, 1906, owing the said [claimant] nothing and the said [claimant] on March 1, 1906, owing to said [decedent]” a certain mortgage obligation. For the purpose of overcoming the effect of the receipt plaintiff offered evidence of