Wallace v. Fourth U. P. Church

Citations

• 152 Pa. 258
• 25 A. 520
• 1893 Pa. LEXIS 966

Syllabus

<p>Ground rent— Statute of limitations — Act of April 27, 1855.</p> <p>Tlie purpose of the act of April 27, 1855, was to relieve titles and facilitate the sale of real estate. It fixes twenty-one years as the period over which a purchaser must search for ground rents: -if for twenty-one years up payment, demand or acknowledgment of the ground rent can be shown, the act conclusively presumes an extinguishment and declares that the rent shall thereafter be irrecoverable.</p> <p>‘ .Computation of time — Persons under disability.</p> <p>The act of April 27, 1855, makes no exception in behalf of persons under disability when their title accrues, nor of persons taking as heirs at law or distributees. Where, therefore, no payment or other acknowledgment of a ground rent had been made for twenty-one years, a plaintiff who brought suit within' twenty-one years after his title accrued was barred by the statute. When the twenty-first yearly payment fell due and was unpaid without legal claim on the owner of the land the bar of the statute closed and the presumption of extinguishment was complete.</p> <p>Unfounded, demand — Nonsuit—Effect upon running of statute.</p> <p>A suit setting up a title that has no existence, in which a nonsuit is taken, is not a demand that will suspend the running of the statute.</p>