Hall v. Hall

Citations

• 125 Ill. 95
• 16 N.E. 896

Syllabus

<p>1. Specific performance—of a contract adjusting differences among devisees, in disregard of a will. An agreement between the widow and heirs of a deceased person, to set aside the will of the decedent, giving one of the heirs the greater part of his estate, and by such agreement prevent a resort to proceedings to contest the will, and whereby each of the heirs and the widow bind themselves to pay a ratable share of the indebtedness of one of the heirs to another, and thus avoid litigation, is such an agreement as a court of equity will look upon favorably, and readily interpose for its specific performance, unless there be some insuperable bar to prevent.</p> <p>2. Same—and herein, whether the contract is complete in itself—and as to matters resting in parol. After the death of a testator, leaving the larger part of his estate to one of his several heirs, by a will executed under such circumstances as to make it doubtful whether it would stand a contest, and for the purpose of avoiding threatened litigation, the heirs and -widow executed an agreement in writing, whereby they jointly and severally agreed to settle the demand of one of their number on another heir, by each bearing his or her proportional part, and to set aside the will and settle the estate as in case of intestacy: Held, that such written agreement was of itself a complete contract, and was obligatory on all, notwithstanding it may have been understood at the time of its execution that a more formal instrument should thereafter be executed. The fact that it may have been agreed that one of the heirs was to have the home farm at an appraisal, being a matter distinct from the subjects of the agreement, would not render the same incomplete.</p> <p>3. In such case, one of the heirs can not defeat the specific performance of such agreement on the ground that the written agreement was accompanied with a parol agreement as to what particular land he was to have at its appraised value, when each of the oth