Smith v. Tuit

Citations

• 127 Pa. 341
• 17 A. 995
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 1121

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. A paper in the form of a will, devising real estate expressly in consideration of and as compensation for specific services to be rendered by the devisee, may operate as a memorandum of a contract for the sale of land sufficient to comply with the statute of frauds, and as such be admissible in evidence during the lifetime of the testator.</p> <p>2. Such paper, without evidence of anything done under it by the devisee, cannot be treated as anything more than a will, revocable at the mere pleasure of the testator; but when the testator has put the devisee in possession of the land devised, and the latter has fully complied with his part of the agreement, the devise loses its revocability and must be treated as an executed contract.</p> <p>3. If such instrument contain a provision that the devisee shall have possession of the land devised during the lifetime of the testator, and in pursuance of this provision the devisee obtain possession thereof and faithfully perform the specified conditions, he cannot be ousted from the land even by the testator, but has vested in him a right of possession sufficient to defeat ejectment brought by the testator or his grantee.</p>