Griffith ex rel. Crownover v. McKeever

Citations

• 259 Pa. 605
• 103 A. 335
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 456

Syllabus

<p>Real property — Merger—Bower interest — Assignment of dower interest to owner in fee — Mortgages—Assumpsit for dower.</p> <p>1. Whenever a greater estate and a less meet in the same person, the less is merged or drowned in the greater.</p> <p>2. Merger is a question of intent and will not take place against the wishes of the party to be affected by it, and where it is against the interest of the person holding the respective titles, the law will not presume an intent to merge.</p> <p>3. Where the owner of land, subject to dower and also to a mortgage to secure the payment of the dower interest, subsequently acquired the dower interest, and thereafter conveyed the premises subject to the mortgage as part of the consideration money, a merger of the dower and the fee took place, and the personal representative of such grantor could not maintain an action of assumpsit for the dower against the grantee of the land, although the amount due was not in dispute; in such case the plaintiff’s remedy was upon the mortgage.</p>