Clyde v. Simpson

4 Ohio St. (N.S.) 446
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1854
StatusPublished

This text of 4 Ohio St. (N.S.) 446 (Clyde v. Simpson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clyde v. Simpson, 4 Ohio St. (N.S.) 446 (Ohio 1854).

Opinion

Ranney, J.

In the present position of this case, the whole controversy arises upon the supplemental answers and cross-bills filed by the unpaid legatees, and the answer of William Miller and Moore Simpson thereto; and the whole depends upon the solution of two questions:

1. Are these legacies, by the will of Andrew Simpson, charged upon the lands devised to Moore Simpson ?

2. If so, was Miller, the purchaser, bound to see that the purchase money paid by him, was properly applied in discharge of the lien ?

The legatees undertake to establish such a charge; and, as it [455]*455stands admitted that Moore Simpson is wholly insolvent, it is evident that their only hope of obtaining payment, depends upon their success.

1. The will of Andrew Simpson was made in 1837, and was evidently executed under the mistaken belief that it took effect immediately and before his death. He lived until October, 1841, and his wife until May, 1851. Subject to the payment of his debts, funeral charges, and the support of himself and wife, he devised all his real and personal property to his son, Moore Simpson; and directed him to pay to each of his other surviving children, and the representatives of one deceased, about an equal sum of money; the one-half in six months after his own decease, and the other, in six months after the decease of his wife.

*Now, it is certainly clear that there is no express charge of these several legacies upon the property devised; and equally so that it was competent for the testator to make them a charge or not, as he saw proper. But an express charge was not necessary. While the intention of the testator, ascertained from the language he has employed, and construed with reference to the subjects of his dispositions and the objects of his bounty (Lessee of Worman v. Teagarden, 2 Ohio St. 382), must, in this as in other cases,' govern ; such intention may be deduced, as a matter of inference or implication, from all the provisions of the will taken and considered together. And in cases like this, I apprehend the intention to be established is rather that of placing the devisee in certain relations to the property, or under certain obligations in respect to it, than an actual contemplation of all the legal consequences resulting from such relations, or of the manner of enforcing such obligations. These, the law annexes as a part of its own system of rules; and judicial decisions furnishing the highest evidence of these rules, are, in such cases, much safer guides than in most cases arising upon the construction of wills.

But the adjudged eases must bo used with careful discrimination. The subject has been often considered from several different points of view, and with different objects ; and the most numerous class of cases in England have been decided upon grounds so peculiar to their system of law as to make them of little value elsewhere.

By the common law, the real estate of a deceased debtor could never be reached by his simple contract creditors. The courts [456, 457]*456, 457very early felt the injustice of this rule, and to counteract its effect where there was a deficiency of personal assets, seized upon the slightest indication of intention in the will of the testator, to charge such debts upon the realty. In giving effect to this policy, it was at first thought to be necessary that the testator should, before devising the lands sought to be charged, have ^directed his debts to be first paid; or paid out of his estate; or some equivalent expression to evince an intention not to give any thing until his debts were paid. But even this restriction was very soon disregarded, and such introductory words held to be unnecessary; and in Graves v. Graves, 8 Linn. 55, Sir L. Shadwell lays down the doctrine broadly, that wherever the testator, in any part of the will, directs his'debts to be paid, it is, in effect, a direction that they shall be paid in the first instance; and, in case of a deficiency of personal property, charges them upon the realty. This decision has been followed in several later cases; and Mr. Jarman (2 Jarm. on Wills, 519) correctly states the established doctrine to be, that a general direction to pay debts in whatever part of the will contained, operates to throw them on the testator’s real estate.”. The better opinion is that it operates, not only against a devisee of the land, but also against the heir, and where the will is confined to a disposition of the personal estate. Sir R. P. Arden, in Shalcross v. Finden, 3 Ves. 739, said he was “very cleaidy of opinion, that whenever a testator says that his debts shall be paid, that will ride over every disposition, either against his heir at law or devisee.”

And, although the rule is subject to an established exception, where the testator has provided a specific fund for the payment of debts, yet this exception is confined within so narrow limits, that Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, in Price v. North, 1 Turn. and Phill 85, where thetestator had expressly bequeathed the residue of his personal estate, subject to the payment of debts and legacies, held the real estate charged as an auxiliary fund; observing, that courts of equity had always been desirous of sustaining such charges for the benefit of creditors, and that the presumption in their favor was not to bo repelled by anything short of a clear and manifest intention to the contrary. Now, while this whole coui’se of decision is pi*ofessedly based upon the intention of the testator, as derived from the language of the will, it is ^impossible not to see that [458]*458the anxiety of the courts “ to prevent men from sinning in their graves,” by leaving their debts unpaid, or, for a more substantial reason, to prevent injustice to living creditors, has largely contributed to produce it, and that in very many cases, they have compelled the testator to do an act of justice, which he had very little thought himself of doing. In this state, where all debts constitute a paramount lien upon all the property of the testator, the direct question could never arise; and, as none of the considerations which have influenced these decisions can have any application to the question, whether pecuniary legacies should be charged upon real property devised, it is evident that these decisions would furnish very unsafe guides. The distinction has been taken by the English courts; Lord Macclesfield (in Davis v. Gardner, 2 P. W. 187) observing, in relation to lands descended, that, “ as plain words are necessary to disinherit an heir, so words equally plain are requisite to charge the estate of an heir, which is a disinherison pro tanto;’' and in Shalcross v. Finden, supra, there is said to be “ no reason why a specific devise should not take effect as well as a pecuniary one.” The fact is, that, after a considerable struggle to escape the imputation of inconsistency, it is pretty well settled that a clearer manifestation of intention is requisite to charge the realty with pecuniary legacies than with debts; and the decided weight of authority there, as well as the undivided opinion in this country, is that where it is not expressly done, the implication must be plainly and clearly deducible, from the language of the will, to have that effect. As is said by Mr. Jar-man, “ this distinction appears to have been a natural consequence of the extreme length which the courts had gone, in holding debts to be charged by loose and equivocal expressions.” 2 Jarm. on Wills, 531. In principle, there is little room for doubt upon this subject.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wormley v. Wormley
21 U.S. 421 (Supreme Court, 1823)
Wright v. Denn Ex Rel. Page
23 U.S. 204 (Supreme Court, 1825)
Lewis v. Darling
57 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1854)
Kelsey v. Deyo
3 Cow. 133 (New York Supreme Court, 1824)
Tole v. Hardy
6 Cow. 333 (New York Supreme Court, 1826)
Harris v. Fly
7 Paige Ch. 421 (New York Court of Chancery, 1839)
Murray v. Ballou
1 Johns. Ch. 566 (New York Court of Chancery, 1815)
Lupton v. Lupton
2 Johns. Ch. 614 (New York Court of Chancery, 1817)
Witman v. Norton
6 Binn. 395 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1814)
Gardner v. Gardner
9 F. Cas. 1167 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Rhode Island, 1823)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 Ohio St. (N.S.) 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clyde-v-simpson-ohio-1854.