William A. Wagoner's Estate

Citations

• 174 Pa. 558
• 34 A. 114
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 925

Syllabus

<p>Gift — Decedent's estate — Delivery of possession.</p> <p>A niece kept house for her uncle during the last fifteen years of his life. She did the household work, took care of cows and worked in the garden. About eighteen months before the uncle’s death, he called on a justice of the peace and executed a bond in favor of his niece in the sum of $2,000, payable to her absolutely in one year, with interest at the rate of five per cent, to which was appended the usual warrant of attorney to confess judgment. The bond was handed to the justice to be kept by him, and delivered to the niece after the uncle’s death. The justice suggested to him that the bond would draw interest during his life, and the uncle directed that the justice should mark the interest as paid at the end of each year from the date of the bond. The justice made one indorsement of the interest having been paid. Some time after the bond had been deposited with the justice the uncle told his niece that'1 there was a bond of $2,000 at the squire’s and that she was to leave it there as long as he lived, and at his death she was to go and get it.” A few days after the uncle’s death the niece called for the bond, and the justice gave it to her. Held, (1) that there was a sufficient delivery to execute the gift to the niece; (2) that the fact that the justice was to indorse the interest paid during the uncle’s lifetime was immaterial, inasmuch as it was obviously a plan to correct the mistake in the original draft of the bond; (3) that the contingency that the gift was not to take effect except in case of the survivorship of the niece, did not render it void; (4) that the delivery of the justice to the niece after the uncle’s death took effect by relation from the first delivery.</p>