Morris v. Knight

Citations

• 14 Pa. Super. 324
• 1900 Pa. Super. LEXIS 54

Syllabus

<p>Waste — Right of life tenant to cut timber.</p> <p>Under the laws of Pennsylvania, a life tenant may out timber for purposes of repair of the premises, or for other purposes required in the reasonable cultivation of the estate, or in the process of clearing the land for cultivation so long as the part so cleared does not cause the proportion of cleared land to timber land upon the whole'tract, to exceed that which is reasonable and proper for purposes of good husbandry.</p> <p>. Will — Effect of directions to convert — Real- estate.</p> <p>Real estate directed to be converted, for purposes of distribution, after the falling in of a life estate, will be treated as personalty, for that purpose, but will remain unchanged as to all beyond what that purpose requires.</p> <p>Waste by life tenant — Measure of damages.</p> <p>The rights and duties of a -life tenant as to standing timber and the measure of damages attending an excess of those rights, or the violation of those duties, are to be determined by the character of the estate of the life tenant. Held, that without regard to where, or in whom, the estates in remainder and reversion are vested, the foundation of the rule that the measure of damages in action for waste against a life tenant shall be the injury to the estate in remainder is to be found in the nature of the property and the fact that the remainderman is not entitled to possession thereof at the time of the injury.</p> <p>Felling timber — Life tenant — Measure of damages.</p> <p>In an action against a life tenant for waste in cutting and selling timber, the jury were properly instructed, as to the measure of damages, that it was not the particular value of any property or timber moved, as merchantable commodity, but the damage done to the land or inheritance which is owned by these reversioners.</p> <p>It was, therefore, proper for the jury to consider the condition in which the woodland was left in determining the effect which the cutting of timber ha