Roe v. Doe

Citations

• 28 Del. 545
• 5 Boyce 545
• 93 A. 373
• 1914 Del. LEXIS 54

Syllabus

<p>1. Dower—Rights of Widow—Possession.</p> <p>A widow who has elected to take dower, instead of under the will, is not entitled to the possession of any particular tract, against the devisees or heirs, until after the commissioners have set oS her dower to her.</p> <p>2. Ejectment—Right of Action—Title of Plaintiff.</p> <p>PlaintiSs in ejectment must recover on the strength of their own title, not on the weakness of defendant’s.</p> <p>3. Wills—Construction—Estates Created—Acceleration of Remainder.</p> <p>The principle of acceleration in the vesting of a remainder, because of the premature termination of the preceding life estate, rests upon testamentary intention, and is applied only when it promotes that intention.</p> <p>4. Wills—Construction—Estate Created—Acceleration of Remainder—Renunciation of Life Estate.</p> <p>Where it appears from a will that the possession of the remainderman was postponed solely for the benefit of the testator’s widow, who was given a life estate, it is presumed that, on her renunciation of the life estate, the remaindermen are entitled to enter into enjoyment at once.</p> <p>5. Wills—Construction—Estates Created—Acceleration of Remainder—Contingent Remainder.</p> <p>A contention that the election by a widow, who was given a life estate under a will to take her dower interest, destroys the contingent remainders created by the will, since they could not vest until the death of the widow, and there could be no remainder without a particular estate to support it, so that testator died intestate as to the life estate, will not be sustained, where contrary to the testator’s intention, and probably unsound.</p> <p>6. Wills—Construction—Estates Created—Acceleration of Remainder—Contingent Remainder.</p> <p>Where a testator gave his property to his wife for life, and after her death to his children then living, or in case of their death to their representatives, share and share alike, the evident intent of the testator was to provide first o