Pryor v. Morgan

Citations

• 170 Pa. 568
• 33 A. 98
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 1438

Syllabus

<p>Gift — Evidence—Decedents' estates.</p> <p>In an action to recover securities which plaintiff claimed as a gift from her aunt, but which she had surrendered to her aunt’s administrator, it is competent for the plaintiff to show that she had only been induced to surrender the securities to the administrator by a threat of imprisonment if she refused</p> <p>Where a niece claims that her aunt with whom she lived had given her securities in her last illness, and the niece offers evidence showing a long-continued friendly intercourse between her aunt and herself, it is improper, in an action by the niece to recover the securities from the aunt’s administrator, to admit evidence that the aunt shortly before her last illness had told the niece that she could not keep her any longer, and that she would have to get out; unless the offer contain the reason why her aunt told her this, or the purpose of the offer be disclosed.</p> <p>Gift — Conversion—Assumpsit.</p> <p>Where an administrator, by threat of imprisonment, compels the surrender to himself of securities claimed by the person holding them as a gift from the decedent, and the administrator converts the securities into money, the person claiming the securities may maintain an action of replevin or waive the tort and sue in assumpsit to recover the value of them; and in such an action it is proper for the court to charge that although the property was taken from plaintiff by defendant in his official capacity, at the time believing he had a right to do so, yet, if it was proven the plaintiff was the owner, she was entitled to recover from him individually its value, with interest from the date it was taken.</p> <p>Gift — Evidence—Statement—Charge of court.</p> <p>In an action of assumpsit where the plaintiff in her statement avers title and right of possession, and that defendant converted the property into money, and the plaintiff offered evidence tending to show an absolute gift, and a gift in expectation of death,