Lawton's Estate

Citations

• 266 Pa. 558
• 109 A. 699
• 1920 Pa. LEXIS 612

Syllabus

<p>Decedents’ estates — Husband and wife — Agreement of separation • — Wife’s interest in husband’s estate — Desertion—Act of June 7, 1917} P. L. JfSB, section 6.</p> <p>Where a husband and wife entered into an agreement in writing in which they recite that, because of “divers disputes and differences, they have consented and agreed to live separately and apart from each other during their natural lives,” and there is nothing to show that either ever released, waived or relinquished his or her rights in the estate of the other, including the right of inheritance, and they lived apart until the husband’s death, the children of the husband cannot, after his death, oppose the allowance to the wife of her statutory interest in her husband’s estate, under the Act of June 7, 1917, P. L. 435, on the ground of wilful and malicious desertion. As the husband was content with the provisions of the agreement during his lifetime, his children cannot do what their father did not see fit to undertake while he lived.</p>