Smith v. Wildman

Citations

• 178 Pa. 245
• 35 A. 1047
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 1160

Syllabus

<p>Orphans' court — Jurisdiction—Nullity of decree.</p> <p>A decree of the orphans’ court is a nullity if pronounced upon a subject over which the court has no jurisdiction.</p> <p>Decedent's estate — Decedent's debts — Sale of real estate — Oaveat emptor— Jurisdiction of orphans' court — Decree questioned collaterally.</p> <p>Where the lien of the debts of a decedent upon real estate has expired by the limitation of time prescribed by the statute, the orphans’ court has no jurisdiction to direct the executor or administrator to sell the real estate for the payment of such debts.</p> <p>The rule of caveat emptor applies to orphans’ court as to other judicial sales, and disappointment in title is not ordinarily ground for relief. The purchasers at an orphans’ court sale are bound to see that the proceedings are sufficiently regular to authorize the sale.</p> <p>An unauthorized decree of an orphans’ court for the sale of lands will not stand until reversed in a regular course of appeal, but may be questioned in a collateral suit by or against a person claiming under the decree, whether the want of jurisdiction appears affirmatively on the record or not.</p> <p>An administrator ten years after the death of decedent, petitioned the orphans’court for permission to sell real estate to pay the decedent’s qlebt which was unsecured. The petition set forth the debt to be paid, but did not state the date of decedent’s death, nor did it appear from the petition itself that the lien of decedent’s debts on the real estate had expired as provided by sec. 13 of the act of February 24,1834, P. L. 75. The court made the order of sale, and the real estate was sold by the administrator. Several years afterward the heirs of the decedent brought an action of ejectment.against the persons in possession of the land claiming title under the orphans’ court sale. Held, that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover.</p> <p>In proceedings in the orphans’ court to sell real estate for the payment