Hatcher v. Hatcher

Citations

• 264 Pa. 105
• 107 A. 660
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 602

Syllabus

<p>Trusts and trustees — Trustee ex maleficio — Fraud—Conveyance by mother to son — Act of April %%, 1856, P. L. 588 — Statute of frauds — Verbal promise as to real estate.</p> <p>1. Where a mother, to protect herself from liabilities which she might incur for a son, executes a deed of real estate to another son, under an oral agreement that he would reconvey the property to her on demand, and the grantee admits that the understanding between him and his mother at the time she executed the deed, was that he should hold the title for her protection, and not as the absolute owner of the property, the grantee who refuses to reconvey holds the premises as trustee ex maleficio for his mother under the Act of April 22, 1856, P. L. 533, and after the death of his mother he must convey the property to her devisees.</p> <p>2. In such a case where it appears that the mother never surrendered possession of the property, but continued to act as owner of it, until her death, and her executrix after her death did the same, a verbal promise made to the grantee by his mother, that he might retain the property as his own, is within the statute of frauds, and void.</p>