Whitby v. Duffy

Citations

• 135 Pa. 620
• 19 A. 1065
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 1229

Syllabus

<p>(a) Henry Whitby conveyed real estate to one Carpenter, his heirs and assigns, for the expressed consideration of one dollar; and, by an instrument indorsed upon thatdeed, dated the same day, witnessed by the same person, and expressing the same consideration, Carpenter conveyed the land to Wliitby’s wife.</p> <p>(b) The habendum in the latter conveyance was to the wife, her heirs and assigns, for the use of said wife, her heirs and assigns, “during her continuing the widow of Henry Whitby, in case she survive him, and at her decease, to him, the said Henry Whitby, his heirs and assigns forever, in fee.”</p> <p>(o) Less than a year after that transaction Henry Whitby died, leaving an only son, a little over a year old. His widow afterward married again and died, leaving a will devising and bequeathing her entire estate to her second husband. At the time of her death, said son was nineteen years of age:</p> <p>1. The two deeds were properly construed together as constituting a single transaction, the object of which was a settlement by the husband upon his wife; and, regarded in the light of the situation of the parties, their effect was to give the property to the wife during widowhood, and, upon her marriage, to the son in fee.</p> <p>2. The habendum in the deed to the wife was not void, either as repugnant to the premises, which purported to grant the property to the wife, her heirs and assigns, or upon the ground that it attempted to create a freehold commencing in the future; wherefore, the second husband took no title to the land, under the wife’s will.</p>