Edwards v. Edwards

39 Pa. 369, 1861 Pa. LEXIS 208
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 24, 1861
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 39 Pa. 369 (Edwards v. Edwards) 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
Edwards v. Edwards, 39 Pa. 369, 1861 Pa. LEXIS 208 (Pa. 1861).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered,

by Woodward, J.

The parties to this unhappy controversy are brothers. The subject-matter of dispute is the title to the Girard Hotel, in Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. The form of the litigation is a bill in equity, with answer, proofs, &c. Presbury & Billings, the tenants of the hotel when the litigation began, and Thomas Edwards, Jr., a mortgagee of James, were made co-defendants with James, but the only real parties in interest are the plaintiff, George W. Edwards, and the defendant, James G. Edwards. The bill was filed by George, complaining that in 1850 he purchased three lots on the north side of Chestnut street, two of them of the executors of Hannah Chancellor, deceased, for the price of $33,000, and the other of Mrs. Sarah Wharton Twells, for the price of $20,000 — that he paid in cash $11,000 down on the purchase of the Chancellor lots, and $5000 on that purchased of Mrs. Twells — that for his own convenience he caused the title-deeds to said lots to be made in the name of his brother James, who executed at his instance bonds and mortgages for the residue of the purchase-money. He then proceeds to allege the erection of the hotel by himself — admits that his brother James gave him about $7000 to be used in the erection thereof — claims that he leased it on the 26th of January 1852, to Presbury & Billings, and that in July 1852, he obtained from George Brown, on the credit of said property, a loan of $100,000, secured by ground-rent deeds, which were executed at his instance, and that the mortgages given to the Chancellor estate and Mrs. Twells for balance of purchase-money, were paid off out [377]*377of the loan so obtained from Brown. The plaintiff thereupon alleges that James holds the legal title of said property in trust for him, and prays that he be decreed to convey it to him.

James’s answer, while it distinctly admits the payment by George of $16,000 of the purchase-money of the lots, denies the alleged trust altogether, and insists that he, James, purchased the lots and built the hotel, and that whatever moneys were paid and advanced by George, whether as purchase-money of the lots, or towards the erection of the hotel, were paid and advanced at his special instance and request as loans to him, and that he has fully repaid said moneys to George out of the Brown loan and the accrued rents of the hotel. He accordingly claims a right to retain and hold the indefeasible and absolute title to said property.

It is perfectly apparent that the great question which these pleadings raise is, whether George has a resulting trust in the Girard Hotel estate. He does not allege an express trust. His case does not rest upon any declaration of trust by James, either written or parol, but entirely upon that implication which the law makes in favour of a purchaser who buys real estate with his own money, and takes the title in the name of another. This is a well recognised mode of making title to real estate. Indeed most of the text writers, and many of the adjudged cases, define a resulting trust by the instance of the very case made by the plaintiff’s bill — a purchase by one in the name of another. The nominee in the title deeds becomes trustee for him who paid the money. The ownership of the money which purchased, draws to itself the beneficial or equitable interest in the estate. And such equitable title, though resting generally in parol proof, is expressly exempted from the Statute of Frauds and Perjuries. Still it is a mere implication or presumption that he who pays purchase-money is the equitable owner of that which is. purchased. Not an arbitrary presumption as it has sometimes been called, but a reasonable one, founded in the general experience and observation of men. At common law, before the Statute of Uses, a feoffment made without consideration was presumed to be made for the use of the feoffor, and it is upon parity of reason and in strict analogy to this that equity regards the owner of money which is paid for land as the owner of the land. But being a mere primé facie presumption, it may be rebutted. If the nominee in the title be a wife, or child, or grandchild, or one to whom the purchaser stands in loco parentis, the moral obligation to provide for such a party is at once recognised and an advancement is presumed. But brothers are not within this rule: Maddison v. Andrew, 1 Vesey, Sr. 58 ; Benbow v. Townsend, 1 Myln. & Keene 506.

The presumption may be rebutted also by the declarations of the purchaser, made at the time of and in such immediate con[378]*378nection with the purchase as to he part of the res gestee. It is important that this rule in regard to declarations be received with the limitation here stated. And so received, it will be apparent that much of the evidence in the large volume of proofs we have before us is either wholly irrelevant or of small consequence. If a purchaser declare that he pays his money for the benefit of the nominee in the deed, though that party do not stand in such relationship as would of itself, without any declaration, raise a presumption against the purchaser, let it tell against him. The legal effect of his act, without the declaration, would have been to give him an equity, but any man of common sense may qualify the legal effect of his conduct by an accompanying declaration.

But what do declarations before or after the purchase signify ? If before, they can import no more than an intention, which, because it is a mere mental purpose, may be changed. If after, they operate to divest an equitable estate and therefore are unworthy to be received. In Bailey v. Boulcott, 4 Russ. 345, it was held that the expression of a mother’s inchoate intention to settle the property was not such a declaration of trust as the court could act upon, and generally loose and indefinite expressions, and such as indicate only an incomplete and executory intention, are insufficient either to fasten a trust upon property or to loosen it where it has once attached. The expressions must be used contemporaneously with or in contemplation of the act of disposition: Kilpin v. Kilpin, 1 Myln. & Keene 537 ; Tritt v. Crotzer, 1 Harris 457 ; Hill on Trustees 97 ; 2 Sug. on Vend. 131.

Keeping these principles and distinctions steadily before our minds, let us advert to that part of the evidence which relates to the time when the rights of the respective parties vested. That is the material point of time to be examined, for if a resulting trust ever arose in favour of the plaintiff it arose then ; and if a resulting trust then, it is one still, unless surrendered, and he is entitled to a decree. But if no trust resulted in the matter of the purchase, none was subsequently created, and he has no right to be in a court of equity. If he is the mere loan-creditor of his brother, his remedies are ample at law.

Five witnesses were examined in relation to the purchase of the lots, three on the part of the plaintiff, and two on behalf of the defendant. Those on the part of the plaintiff were Emlen, the real estate broker, who was employed to sell the lots; Elliott, the conveyancer, who prepared the title papers for the Edwards; and Wallace, the agent of the Chancellor estate and of Mrs. Twells, who received the purchase-money and securities. These witnesses all represent the purchase to have been negotiated and completed by George W. Edwards, the money paid by him, the deeds made to his brother by his directions, and the bonds and [379]*379mortgages executed by James by direction of George.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
39 Pa. 369, 1861 Pa. LEXIS 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-edwards-pa-1861.