Rhodes v. Good

Citations

• 271 Pa. 117
• 114 A. 494
• 1921 Pa. LEXIS 465

Syllabus

<p>Trusts and trustees — Land held to secure debt — Resulting trust— Fraaid — Evidence—Defeasance—Option to purchase — Time essence of option — Laches—Acts of April 22, 1856, and June 8, 1881.</p> <p>1. Where a creditor takes title to the land of his debtor, pays all the debts of the latter, and agrees, in a writing executed in 1908, but not acknowledged or recorded, to reeonvey the land upon payment of his advances, debts, costs and interest, and the debtor dies without having redeemed the land, the widow of the latter, with full knowledge of the facts, cannot, ten years after her husband’s death, compel a reconveyance. She is barred by her own laches and by the Act of April 22, 1856, P. L. 533.</p> <p>2. If the agreement be treated as a defeasance to the deed, it was void under the Act of June 8,1881, P. L. 84, and is not affected by the Act of April 23, 1909, P. L. 137.</p> <p>3. If the agreement should be treated ás an option to repurchase, it expired by its own limitations, and, besides, was not accepted; time is the essence of an option.</p> <p>4. In such ease, if the grantee, on a bill against him for reconveyance, offers in his answer a recovery on reimbursement, but denies all the averments of the bill, and his own liability, and the offer is not accepted and the chancellor finds the facts in his favor, a decree, dismissing the bill, will be sustained.</p>