McClarren's Estate

Citations

• 238 Pa. 220
• 85 A. 1119
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 949

Syllabus

<p>Wills — Conversion—Power to sell — Re-conversion—Judgment against legatee — Priority.</p> <p>1. Where a testator devises his homestead to his wife for life, and then directs “that the same be sold by my administrator, at private or public sale, and that the proceeds arising therefrom be equally divided between my two sons share and share alike, after her death,” and also directs that the “residue of moneys from the sale of my real estate, other than that allotted to my wife’s occupation and use,” shall “be divided in equal shares between my two sons,” and finally directs his administrator “to sell and convey by deed or deeds my real estate in accordance with the foregoing,” the will works an equitable conversion of all the testator’s real estate into personalty.</p> <p>2. Where a power of sale in a will works an absolute conversion of'testator’s realty, and after the death of the testator the beneficiaries work a re-conversion, judgments entered against one of the beneficiaries prior to the date of the re-conversion have no lien upon the land as against judgments entered against the beneficiary after the re-conversion.</p> <p>3. Where a power of sale in a will works an absolute conversion of realty, the proceeds of which are to be distributed to testator’s sons, and the executor sells personal property and files an account of the proceeds thereof, a release given by the sons to the executor will not work a re-conversion of the realty, where it appears tha,t the release merely waived the appointment of an auditor and acknowledged receipt of the fund, and that its purpose was merely to save the expense of distribution through the Orphans’ Court.</p> <p>4. In such a case where the executor sells lands in pursuance of the power in the will, the fact that the sons join in the deed in order to save trouble and expense of court proceedings does not work a re-conversion of the real estate; but deeds executed by the sons themselves without any connection with the .executo