Marshall's Estate

Citations

• 278 Pa. 206
• 122 A. 289
• 1923 Pa. LEXIS 500

Syllabus

<p>Trusts and trustees — Payment of debts out of income — Exoneration of estate — Life tenants — Remaindermen—Evidence—Burden of proof — Presumption—A cquies cence — Estoppel—E quity.</p> <p>1. A tenant for life, paying a charge on an estate, is prima facie a creditor unless by some expression a contrary intention is indicated. Without such expression he is presumed to have acted in his own interest.</p> <p>2. A tenant for life, in paying off a charge, is under no obligation or duty to make a declaration or do any act demonstrating his intention, and the burden of proof is on those who assert that in paying off the charge he intended to exonerate the estate; the presumption is that the charge is to be kept alive.</p> <p>3. The intention to exonerate the estate may appear from the conduct of the life tenant, legatee or party interested, or from some statement or written declaration.</p> <p>4. Where a testator bequeathed in trust a manufacturing plant to his wife and children for life, then over, and the life tenants petition the court to authorize the trustee to create a mortgage to prevent immediate liquidation and loss, and agree that a portion of the income be used to reduce the mortgage, the life tenants cannot, twenty years after such a petition was allowed, after they had received large profits from the business, and after the plant had become worn out and useless, claim to have the portion of income paid on the mortgage returned.to them; they are estopped by their acts.</p> <p>5. Any other conclusion would be inequitable under the facts of the case.</p>