Patterson's Estate

Citations

• 234 Pa. 128
• 82 A. 1130
• 1912 Pa. LEXIS 620

Syllabus

<p>Decedents’ estates — Partition—Notice of proceedings — Payment of assigned mortgage — Laches—Estoppel.</p> <p>On July 20, 1898, the owner of an undivided fourth interest in certain real estate devised to her by a decedent mortgaged it to a reputable attorney, the mortgage being duly recorded. On August 20, 1898, the attorney, as mortgagee, assigned the mortgage upon the margin of the record to a church board, a member of the firm of attorneys for the church board having examined the title of the mortgagor. At the time of the execution of the mortgage, as well as when it was assigned to the church board, there were pending in the court below proceedings in partition in the decedent’s estate, which culminated in an order of sale to a trust company as trustee, the proceedings being given due legal advertisement. The property was sold and, on an adjudication of the account of the trustee, the amount of the mortgage with interest was awarded to the attorney mortgagee “for use of” the church board. No one appeared at the audit on behalf of the church board as assignee. On May 26, 1899, the trustee paid to the attorney mortgagee the amount awarded upon the mortgage and he placed upon the record a receipt signed by himself as “Atty.” He never paid this sum over to the church board but from time to time paid interest to the board on the mortgage debt until his death on July 8,1905. In the following May or June, when the board was about to take steps to Collect the interest for more than a year which had apparently accrued on the mortgage, it discovered the facts. In March, 1907, the board entered into an agreement with the trustee that nothing should be done for six months during which time the trustee should be allowed to use its name in an effort to collect from the attorney’s estate, without prejudice to either party. In November, 1909, the board presented a petition to the orphans’ court to compel payment by the trustee to the board of the amount awarded to it under t