Reagan v. Curran

Citations

• 226 Pa. 265
• 75 A. 362
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 751

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Evidence—Parol license to use real estate — Estoppel.</p> <p>1. The testimony to establish an irrevocable parol license to occupy the land of a testator for an indefinite period should be of the same character as that required to take a parol sale or gift followed by posession and improvement out of the operation of the statute of frauds. If the claim to such right is set up by a child of the testator he should be held rigidly to the proof by direct, positive and unambiguous evidence of all the facts which courts of equity regard as equivalent to written contracts.</p> <p>Will — Construction—Ambiguity—Legacy—Extrinsic evidence.</p> <p>2. Where a testator bequeaths “a five hundred dollar interest” in land occupied by his son-in-law to his son-in-law, upon which land the latter had constructed a building, and there is nothing in the will to create an ambiguity, extraneous evidence will not be admitted to show that it was the intention of the testator to give this whole estate in the land to his son-in-law.</p>