Peters's Estate

Citations

• 16 Pa. Super. 462
• 1901 Pa. Super. LEXIS 94

Syllabus

<p>Vendor and vendee — Charge on land — Personal liability — Deed.</p> <p>Where a purchaser takes title to land which is subject to an incumbrance created by a former owner, he does not thereby become personally liable for the debt, unless he expressly covenants to pay the same, or the terms of the conveyance import a covenant to be personally answerable.</p> <p>A conveyance of land “ under and subject ” to the payment of an incumbrance created by the grantor, constitutes only as between themselves a covenant of indemnity to the grantor on the part of the grantee. Yet if the grantee has made himself directly liable for the debt for which the incumbrance was created, then his personal estate upon his death is the primary fund for the payment. The fact of such an undertaking may be implied from the circumstances attending and connected with the conveyance of the land.</p> <p>When a purchaser assumes a debt as a part of the price of his purchase and thus makes it his own, the personal property of his estate must go for the relief of the realty in discharging the obligation. The mere fact, however, that the amount of the incumbrance is deducted from the value of the property, and only the balance of the purchase money paid, is not sufficient to charge the grantee personally for the debt. He must by contract either express or implied from the covenants of the deed make himself personally and directly liable for the debt to the owner of the incumbrance.</p> <p>Where a deed conveying land charged with a dower interest recites a specified sum as “ part of the purchase money which remains charged upon the property” and the habendum recites that the conveyance is subject to the payment of said sum, yearly interest to the widow, and at her decease the principal sum to be immediately payable to the heirs of her husband, and the x’eceipt in the deed recites that the said sum is chax-ged upon the land, the grantee in the deed is not personally liable for the said sum and after hi