Lammot v. Home of the Merciful Saviour

Citations

• 68 Pa. Super. 597
• 1918 Pa. Super. LEXIS 147

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Perpetuities—•Trusts and trustees — Estate in fee tail.</p> <p>Where a marriage settlement made in 1808 creates a trust for the wife for her sole and separate use with power of appointment by will, and the wife who died in 1842, left a will by which she gave a ground rent in trust for her husband for life, then over in trust to a grandson “for his use during his life, and from and after her decease or his lawful issue then living” with a further provision that if the gift to the grandson exceeded her legal power of appointment, then to him in fee, and the grandson dies in 1915, leaving children, such children are not entitled to the ground rent, on the theory that their father was vested with an estate in fee tail under his grandmother’s will. The gift to him under the attempted exercise of the power was illegal as violating the rule against perpetuities, and he took under the other clause vesting in him a fee.</p> <p>The case is distinguished from Eiehelberger v. Bamitz, 9 Watts 447, because the will provides for a gift over in trust, and fixes a particular time when it should terminate (the death of the grandson), and specifies definite persons as a 'class to whom the estate should go (the grandson’s lawful issue then living).</p>