Davis Estate

22 Pa. D. & C.2d 755, 1960 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 151
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Montgomery County
DecidedMarch 7, 1960
Docketno. 60,266
StatusPublished

This text of 22 Pa. D. & C.2d 755 (Davis Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Montgomery County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis Estate, 22 Pa. D. & C.2d 755, 1960 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 151 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1960).

Opinion

Taxis, P. J.,

. . . Several matters have been presented requiring determination by the court.

The first relates to an award of personal property to Rita Miriam Purcell, now Miriam Clegg. In section fifth, IV, of his will, decedent bequeathed certain personal property to Rita Miriam Purcell, now Miriam Clegg, as follows:

“IV. I also give unto RITA MIRIAM PURCELL the right to use and enjoy, so long as she lives, all the tangible personal property apart from any cash or securities that may be in or about my home at 441 Sycamore Avenue, Merion and in or about my said farm at Birchrunville, with the right vested in her to disposes of any or all of such personalty as she, at her sole discretion, may see fit, either during her lifetime or at her death; it being my wish but not my direction that such items as she shall not have disposed of at her death she would bequeath in her last Will and Testament unto my nephew, GEORGE D. SNELL, now residing at Bar Harbor, Maine, but if RITA MIRIAM PURCELL shall fail to leave a last Will and Testament or leaving such a Will shall fail specifically to dispose of such items, or any of them, I direct, anything contained herein to the contrary notwithstanding, that such personalty as said RITA MIRIAM PURCELL has not disposed of at the time of her death shall pass to and be distributed to my said nephew, GEORGE D. SNELL, absolutely.”

[757]*757Section 13 of the Estates Act of April 24, 1947, P.L. 100, 20 PS §301.13, is applicable in this situation. It provides that “A person having a present interest in personal property . . . which is not in trust, and which is subject to a future interest, shall be deemed to be a trustee of such property, and not a debtor to the remainderman, with the ordinary powers and duties of a trustee, except that he shall not be required to change the form of the investment to an investment authorized for Pennsylvania fiduciaries, nor shall he be entitled to compensation as trustee.”

This same section also provides that such a trustee “unless given a power of consumption,” shall be required to enter security.

It could be argued, in view of the wide powers conferred upon Mrs. Clegg by the will, that she has a fee simple interest as opposed to a legal life estate with the power to dispose or consume. However, the Pennsylvania rule is that a life estate is not enlarged to the status of a fee even though the life tenant is given an absolute power of disposal either by inter vivos conveyance or by will where there is a gift over at the death of the life tenant of the portion of his estate not disposed of by him: Hunter, O. C. Commonplace Book, Vol. 5, pp. 54-55, Powers of Appointment by Deed §2-(e), Vol. 5, pp. 72-73, Powers of Appointment by Will §2 (d). See also Simes and Smith, Future Interests, 2nd ed. §1488.

In view of these authorities I conclude that the personal property referred to in section fifth IV of decedent’s will should be and is hereby awarded to Mrs. Clegg as trustee. I further conclude that no security need be required of Mrs. Clegg, since the will grants her an absolute power of consumption.

The next question requires a determination as to how the Birchrunville property should be awarded.

Under the.-terms of section fifth I of his will, decedent granted to Rita Miriam Purcell, now Miriam [758]*758Clegg, the right to occupy his farm at Birchrunville for life and subject to certain conditions. Section fifth I of decedent’s will reads as follows:

“I. I direct that for a period of two years from the date of my death RITA MIRIAM PURCELL shall have the right to use and occupy my home at 441 Sycamore Avenue, Merion, Pennsylvania, and my said farm at Birchrunville, or either of them, free of rent and during said period my Executors and Corporate Trustee shall pay all costs of the upkeep of both of said properties, subject to the provisions hereinafter set forth, necessary for maintaining the same in good order and repair and all charges and assessments thereon, from the principal of my estate. At the end of said two year period she shall have the right to use and occupy either or both of said properties until her decease, free of rent, but after the expiration of said two year period all such cost of maintenance and upkeep and all charges and assessments thereon during such occupancy shall be assumed and paid for by her, in relief of my estate, and in the event of her failure to properly maintain any such occupied property or properties and to pay all charges and assessments when due, the Corporate Trustee shall make such payments and charge the same against the income due and payable to the said RITA MIRIAM PURCELL hereunder.”

In April 1957, Miss Purcell, now Mrs. Clegg, advised the executors with respect to the Merion property, that she did not wish to occupy the Merion residence and directed in writing that it be sold. This was done and settlement held on February 14,1958. She advised the executors that she did desire to occupy the Birchrunville farm property.

I hold that Miss Purcell, now Mrs. Clegg, has no estate with respect to the farm property, since the mere right to use and occupy real estate when coupled [759]*759with the provision that such real estate shall be sold if the person having such right ceases to occupy the real estate confers a mere license to occupy upon such person and not an estate: Baldesberger v. Baldesberger, 378 Pa. 113; Calhoun v. Jester, 11 Pa. 474; Sinnott’s Estate, 53 Pa. Superior Ct. 383; Shipley’s Estate, 45 Pa. Superior Ct. 570.

From a reading of the provisions of the will, it seems clear that it was decedent’s intention that the farm property be held by the trustees in the event Mrs. Clegg decided to occupy the property, particularly in view of the duties imposed upon the corporate trustee requiring it to see that Mrs. Clegg properly maintained the property and “paid all charges and assessments thereon” upon the expiration of the two-year period. Moreover, it was the trustees’ duty to sell the property, once the trusts have been established, in the event that Mrs. Clegg at any time directed them to make such a sale.

Sinnott’s Estate, 53 Pa. Superior Ct. 383, 387, is in point. In that case testator directed that his wife be permitted to occupy rent free his residence for the term of her life, if she so desired, provided that if she did not desire to reside at the residence or did not wish to occupy the same, the residence was to be sold by his executors. Testator bequeathed the residue of his estate upon certain trusts to his executors as trustees. The question was whether the widow had the duty to pay the annual real estate taxes upon the property, and it was held by the court that she was not so required, stating as follows:

“The direction to the executors and trustees confirms the view, that the testator had clearly in his mind the intention to give his wife the privilege of living at the residence, and that when she no longer continued to personally reside there that the place should be sold; that intention he expressed in words which admit of [760]*760no misunderstanding, or doubt. The enjoyment by the widow of the right to occupy the residence depends upon the express condition that she shall continue to there reside. This was undoubtedly an incumbrance or charge upon the title, in the hands of the trustees, but an incumbrance is not necessarily an estate in land.

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Related

Baldesberger v. Baldesberger
105 A.2d 713 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1954)
Calhoun v. Jester
11 Pa. 474 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1849)
Callen v. Hilty
14 Pa. 286 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1850)
Baldwin v. Taylor
31 A. 250 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1895)
Shipley's Estate
45 Pa. Super. 570 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1911)
Sinnott's Estate
53 Pa. Super. 383 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1913)
Wusthoff v. Dracourt
3 Watts 240 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1834)

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Bluebook (online)
22 Pa. D. & C.2d 755, 1960 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 151, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-estate-paorphctmontgo-1960.