Stephenson's Estate

Citations

• 256 Pa. 487
• 100 A. 985
• 1917 Pa. LEXIS 640

Syllabus

<p>Decedents’ estates — Legacies—Charge on land — Statute of limitations — Acts of April 27, 1855, P. L. 868, Sec. 7, and February 26, 1869, P. L. 8■ — Pleading—Practice, C.P.</p> <p>1. If the person claiming payment of a charge upon land is not able to show either a claim or demand of payment made by him on the owner of such real estate, or a payment upon or an acknowledgment of -the existence \\of such lien or charge within twenty-one' years from the date.when the same became due and payable, the Act of April 27,1855, P. L. 368, Section 7, relating to the limitation of actions to recover sums of money charged upon or liens against real estate, operates to raise a conclusive presumption of the release or the extinguishment of the demand, and declares that it shall thereafter be irrecoverable.</p> <p>2. To remove the bar of the Act of 1855 demand must be made of, or acknowledgment by, all the owners sought to be affected thereby, in accordance with the Act of February 26,1869, P. L. 3. Declarations by a life tenant can affect only his own interest.</p> <p>3. It is not necessary to plead the Act of 1855.</p> <p>4. A testator made a bequest to a minor in trust and provided that such fund as remained at the time the legatee reached majority should be paid to the legatee in such parts as the trustee might deem necessary. At .the hearing of a petition to charge certain real estate of the decedent with the payment of such legacy, it appeared that the petition was not filed until 28 years after the testator’s death and until 24 years after the petitioner became of age; that the owners of real estate sought to be charged had never acknowledged that the land was subject to such charge, and that no demand had theretofore been made upon them. Held, (1) the legacy became a charge on the land at the time of testator’s death and was presently demandable; (2) petitioner’s claim was barred by the Act of 1855 and the petition should have been dismissed.</p>