Sanders's Estate

Citations

• 41 Pa. Super. 77
• 1909 Pa. Super. LEXIS 15

Syllabus

<p>Partition — Orphans’ court — Jurisdiction—Tenant by curtesy.</p> <p>1. The orphans’ court has jurisdiction to entertain a petition for partition filed by the husband of the deceased daughter of a decedent as tenant by the curtesy of his wife’s undivided interest in the estate of the decedent.</p> <p>Decedents’ estates — Tenant by curtesy — Husband and wife — Possession.</p> <p>2. A surviving husband is entitled to curtesy of land of his deceased wife of which he had only a potential seizin during her life. Actual possession by the wife, or by the husband, in her right is not necessary. If she had possession by a tenant for years, or if she had a right to the present possession, it is sufficient. The effect is equivalent to that of actual seizin.</p> <p>Partition — Denial of title — Adverse possession — Evidence—Tenant by the curtesy.</p> <p>3. The denial of the tenancy in common by an heir of the decedent on the return of the writ of partition, with an assertion of title in himself by adverse possession, will not be sufficient to require a suspension of the proceeding, but the court may hear evidence upon the claim asserted and if it be insufficient to justify submission to a jury, may confirm the inquest and proceed with the partition.</p> <p>4. A husband’s right as tenant by the curtesy in an undivided interest of his deceased wife in the land of a decedent, is not defeated by a claim of adverse possession by mere proof of the reception of profits and the payment of taxes by the co-tenants for over twenty-one years prior to the time of the filing of a petition in partition by the husband.</p> <p>5. While a life tenant has no right in the orphans’ court to elect, or to come in and bid upon return of a rule to accept or refuse, yet he has such interest as entitles him to all the incidental advantages that may accrue from an allotment by a court after competition between the parties entitled to bid, or a sale, and therefore has equal right with the other parties t