Beringer v. Lutz

37 A. 640, 179 Pa. 1, 1897 Pa. LEXIS 594
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania·Decided January 4, 1897·No. Appeal, No. 236·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Williams,

■ The questions raised by the several assignments of error will be readily comprehended after a glance at the facts out of which they grow. The plaintiff is a purchaser at sheriff’s sale of a farm sold as the property of Daniel Lutz. This proceeding was instituted by the purchaser for the purpose of obtaining possession. The defendant in the judgment concedes that such title as he had has passed by the sheriff’s sale to the purchaser, but alleges that as to about twenty twenty-ninths of the title he held for the use of Ms wife, Henrietta Lutz, under a trust resulting from the payment of $2,000 of the purchase money by her upon a parol agreement that she should be an owner in proportion to the purchase money paid by her. To establish this trust it was mcumbent on Mrs. Lutz to show by evidence that was clear and satisfactory, first, that she did pay a portion of the purchase money for the farm in controversy, as alleged; second, that it was paid upon an agreement that she was to have the title to the land, or such portion of it as she paid for; and third, that the money so paid belonged to her as her separate estate. Upon the trial of the cause Mrs. Lutz gave evidence tending to prove the payment of $2,000 of the purchase money, and that it was paid upon the agreement alleged. To show that the money was her own, and received from her father’s estate, she proved by the testimony of several witnesses that not long after her marriage her father proposed to advance to her the sum of $400 in land if she and her husband would move upon the land and improve it. To this they both agreed., Her father had however the opinion that because the note of a married woman was not valid as an obligation [11] against her, so neither could she lawfully take a title to land. He proposed therefore to give a deed for the land to her husband, take his note for $400, the price of the land, and charge the note to her share in his estate by his will. This was done. Lutz and his wife went upon the land, lived upon it for more than twenty years, improved it, and at length sold it with an adjoining piece of land which her husband had purchased, and divided the money received according to their respective interests, she receiving $1,400 as her share. This together with the moneys received from her father’s estate made up the sum she alleged was paid by her. If believed the testimony of the witnesses by whom these facts were shown was sufficient to justify the jury in finding in favor of Mrs. Lutz. The plaintiff alleged that this testimony was unworthy of credit because it was in apparent contradiction of the written documents, the deed, and note given at the time. The question for the jury was whether these papers were so explained and accounted for by the testimony as to overcome the presumption arising, prima facie, upon them, and establish the title of Mrs. Lutz in the thirteen acres conveyed by her father to her husband, but admittedly paid for out of her share in her father’s estate. The first assignment of error complains that the learned judge erred in affirming the plaintiff’s first point. In this point he was asked to say that if Caleb Pyle the father of Mrs. Lutz had passed the title to the thirteen acres to Daniel Lutz in 1865, he could not several years later advance the same land to his daughter so as to impress it with a trust in her favor. As an abstract proposition this might be unobjectionable, but as applicable to the facts of this case the point was misleading. No such question was presented on the evidence. There was no attempt to show any such effort on the part of Caleb Pyle as the point assumed.

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Beringer v. Lutz, 37 A. 640, 179 Pa. 1, 1897 Pa. LEXIS 594 (Pa. 1897).

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