Appeal of T. Downing Lindley

102 Pa. 235, 1883 Pa. LEXIS 40
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 19, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 102 Pa. 235 (Appeal of T. Downing Lindley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Appeal of T. Downing Lindley, 102 Pa. 235, 1883 Pa. LEXIS 40 (Pa. 1883).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Faxson

delivered the opinion of the court, March 19th 1883.

The above appeals are from the same decree, and will be considered in the order in which they are stated.

I. Appeal of T. Downing Lindley et al.

Perot Lardner, whose will forms the subject of this contention, died April 29th 1881, seised of a large real estate and also personal property estimated at one million dollars. The testator derived a portion of his real estate by descent from his father, which was awarded to the Lardners, and is not the subject of dispute. Another portion of the real estate descended to the testator from his mother, and was claimed by the appellants, who are admittedly the testator’s next of kin on the mother’s side. The auditing judge awarded the funds arising from the sales of certain realty purchased by testator’s mother, and the rents of other property bought by her, to the appellants. The court below set aside the adjudication and awarded the fund to the appellees, who are the heirs at law ex parte paterna, upon the ground that the will of Perot Lardner worked a conversion of his real estate, and that the same must be distributed as money. It is conceded that if there was a conversion the appellees are entitled.

We see no serious difficulty in the case beyond the fact that a large fortune is at stake. The will of Perot Lardner provides' for two distinct contingencies. The first is the event of his dying without leaving a child or children or the descendant of a child or children living at the time of his death. After giving a number of pecuniary legacies to relatives, friends and public institutions, the testator bequeaths a legacy of two hundred thousand dollars to his wife, and the rest, residue and remainder of hi's estate to his executors in trust: 1st. To invest the same and keep the same invested ; 2d. To collect the income, issues and profits thereof ; 3d. To pay all taxes, expenses and repairs; 4th. To pay the remaining income to his wife, Ellen M. Lardner, for life; and, 5th. Upon the death of his said wife “ to divide the principal of my residuary estate among such persons and in such proportions as is provided for by the intestate laws of Pennsylvania, it being my will that in the event of my dying without issue that after the death of my wife the whole of my estate shall vest in and be divided among my next of kin or heirs at law the same as though I had died intestate and unmarried.”

The testator survived his wife and left no lineal descendants of any’ degree. This portion of his will therefore took effect. That his residuary estate must go to his “ next'of kin or heirs [255]*255at law” precisely as if he had died intestate, is too plain for argument, unless we find something-else in the will which controls it. I will not stop to discuss the proposition that the direction to invest the residue and keep the same invested indicated an intention on the part of the testator to convert his real estate. It is sufficient to say in passing that the direction to invest was applicable to the personal estate, just as the word “ repairs ” applies to and was evidently intended for his real estate. In other words, the testator directed that his personal estate should be kept invested and that his real estate should be kept in repair.

But it is said the remainder of paragraph 14 of his will shows that the testator intended a conversion. This portion of paragraph 14- refers to the second contingency above referred te. It provides for the event of the testator leaving his wife and a child or children or the descendants of a child or children living at the time of his death. The contingency did not happen, and this portion of the will never took effect. It drops out of the case. It is vain to explore this alternate section of the will to ascertain what the testator intended in case of his death without leaving a wife and a child or children surviving. That he had already expressed, as clearly as language can make it.

The power of sale with which the 14th paragraph of the will concludes is as follows: “ I further authorize and empower my said executors to make sale, in their discretion, of any real estate for the purposes of this trust and to make deeds to the purchaser or purchasers thereof without any liability on the part of the purchasers to see to the application of the purchase money.” This is a mere discretionary power, and under the authorities does not work a conversion: Peterson’s Appeal, 7 Norris 397; Jones v. Caldwell, 1 Outerbridge 42.

•The learned court below was of opinion, however, that there was such a blending of the réal and personal estate to create a fund for the purposes of distribution as to bring the case within the rulings of Dundas’s Appeal, 14 P. F. S. 325; Page’s Estate, 25 Ibid. 87, and Roland v. Miller, 4 Outerbridge 47. Some significance was also attached to the fact of the gift of $25,000 to each son as he should attain the age of eighteen years, which said legacy was to be paid out of either the principal or income; and to the further fact that the gift to the life tenant “ which carefully enumerates the income, issues and profits but omits mention of rents.”

The gift of $25,000 to each son occurs in that portion of the will which never took effect, by reason of the death of all of testator’s lineal descendants during his own life. The omission of the word “ rents ” in the gift to the life tenant has no especial significance, for the reason that income, issues and [256]*256profits ” include the rents of the real estate. The word “ issues” is an apt term to indicate the rents and profits derived from realty.

N or are we able to see the applicability of the cases referred to. In Dundas’s Appeal there was a conversion in fact. No question of the effect of an unexecuted power was before the court. On the contrary, the power had been fully executed, and the main contention was whether the executors should be surchai’ged for the actual value of a house alleged to have been sold at an under-price. The most that can be predicated of that case is that a trust for sale, with a power of sale, and an execution of the power, works a conversion. Anything beyond this is dictum. We are wholly unable to extract anything from Page’s estate which favors a conversion of Perot Lardner’s real estate. If authority at all upon this question its weight would seem to be on the other side. In the recent case of Roland v. Miller, there was a discretionary power given, which, after a time, became imperative, and it was held that it must be regarded as a trust, for unless it'was executed no legatee could be paid. The legatees were given the proceeds only, not the estate or property itself. The execution- of the power was therefore compulsory in order that the object of the testator might not be defeated, and it was held there was a conversion. This distinction has been frequently recognized: Chew v. Chew, 4 Casey 17; Evans v. Chew, 21 P. F. S. 47; and see 2 Sudgen on Powers.

The blending of real and personal estate by a testator in his will is not of much significance unless it clearly appears that he intended thereby to create a fund raised out of both real and personal estate, and to bequeath said fund as money. Where such a purpose is expressed and a power of sale given to carry it into effect, there is some room for holding that a conversion was intended. Nothing of the kind exists in this case. As before stated, the testator owned both real and personal estate at the time of his death.

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102 Pa. 235, 1883 Pa. LEXIS 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/appeal-of-t-downing-lindley-pa-1883.