Fleck v. Harmstad, Kingsley

155 A. 875, 304 Pa. 302, 77 A.L.R. 874, 1931 Pa. LEXIS 500
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 13, 1931
DocketAppeal, 239
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 155 A. 875 (Fleck v. Harmstad, Kingsley) 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
Fleck v. Harmstad, Kingsley, 155 A. 875, 304 Pa. 302, 77 A.L.R. 874, 1931 Pa. LEXIS 500 (Pa. 1931).

Opinion

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Maxey,

On May 10, 1863, George R. Harmstad died seized of certain real estate situate in Philadelphia. His will, dated January 11, 1859, was duly probated. The final remainder under that will, by adjudication of the Orphans’ Court of Philadelphia County was on March 12, 1929, declared invalid for violation of the rule against perpetuities. As a result it was held that title to certain real estate of which Harmstad died seized was vested from 1863 in Harmstad’s heirs at law. Harmstad was survived by four brothers and one sister, each of whom took a one-fifth interest in the real estate in question. One of these brothers, Edwin Harmstad, died in 1887, leaving a will dated March 9, 1880, duly probated in 1887. Under it the sole beneficiaries were his foster daughter, Mary G. Kingsley, and her children, Mary G. Kingsley, Jr., and William H. Kingsley. The question before us is whether the terms of the will of Edwin Harmstad were effectual to dispose of an interest to him then unknown which he had in his brother’s estate. It was not determined that he had an interest until forty-two years after his death. Mary G. Kingsley, the foster daughter of Edwin Harmstad, died intestate and a widow on March 28,1926. Her son, William H. Kingsley, the appellant, survived her as her only heir at law.

On May 9, 1929, Annie D. Fleck filed a bill in equity in partition, averring that she and certain of the defendants named in the bill owned the realty which is the subject of this controversy, as tenants in common, and asking for a partition. By agreement, this proceeding *306 was discontinued and a new bill in equity , was filed in the same court, term and number on August 5, 1930. William H. Kingsley was made a defendant in this proceeding, but it was averred in the bill that he had no interest in the property. Kingsley filed an answer to the bill, and after argument the court below entered a decree that Edwin Harmstad died intestate as to the real estate concerned in the proceedings and that William H. Kingsley had no interest in the real estate.

The third paragraph of the will of Edwin Harmstad reads as follows: “I give and bequeath all my Household goods, wearing apparel and Jewelry &c unto my friend Mary G. Kingsley wife of the late William Kingsley of the said City of Philadelphia Restaurateur.” The appellant claims that this provision was sufficient to vest in Mary G. Kingsley, the appellant’s mother, the interest in the real estate which the testator at that time did not know he owned, but which by the adjudication of 1929 was held to have vested in him sixty-six years previously.

A discussion of the intention of the testator, Edwin Harmstad, with respect to the real estate in question avails us nothing, for Harmstad was entirely without knowledge at the time he made his will and at all times thereafter that he had any interest in this real estate. One cannot have any intention toward a thing of whose existence he is unaware. The fundamental question before us is whether the will contains sufficient words to pass the real estate in question. The will contained no general residuary clause, and paragraph three of the will cannot be construed as such.

In Swan’s Est., 238 Pa. 430, it was held that where a testator bequeathed all his personal property not already disposed of by his will, “consisting of stocks, bonds, rents, uncollected balances on sales of real estate,” to his five children, this was a residuary gift of the testator’s personal estate which would not embrace the rents and uncollected balances accruing after his *307 death. It was held that the testator died intestate as to that portion of his realty which had not been devised in other portions of his will.

In Thompson’s Est., 229 Pa. 542, this court said: “His [the testator’s] intention must be ascertained from the words employed in the will, and neither surmises as to such intention nor the application of rules of construction can be permitted to defeat it. While it is true that in construing any part of a will the entire instrument must be considered, yet this rule, like all other rules of interpretation, is only available when a necessity for its application arises. There can be no such necessity when the testator uses language that is plain and certain in its meaning, and there is no conflict in the different provisions of the will. A general scheme of distribution cannot be attributed to the testator which will defeat the intention to dispose of the estate clearly disclosed by the plain and express language of the will.” In that case the testator gave his wife one-half of his personal property, less $2,500, all of his household furniture, one-half of the income from his real estate until it is sold, and the use of his home so long as she desired to live there. This court held that the widow was “entitled to one-half of his goods, chattels, securities and moneys. Under no pretense could the words ‘personal estate’ have been construed to include the real estate, so as to give her the one-half of it.” The court said: “The testator knew that he was possessed of both personal and real estate, and he recognized the distinction between them.” In the case before us, the testator obviously recognized the distinction between realty and personal property and chose an apt word with which to dispose of his personal property and an apt word with which to dispose of all the real estate he knew he had. In the third paragraph of his will he says, “I give and bequeath all my Household goods, wearing apparel and Jewelry &c.” In the fourth paragraph of his will, he “gives, devises and bequeathes” cer *308 tain houses to Mary G. Kingsley and Mary G. Kingsley, Jr., and William H. Kingsley.

“Bequeath” is properly applied to gifts by will of personal property, and not realty: Logan v. Logan, 17 Pac. 99; Delafield v. Barlow, 14 N. E. 498.

The term “devise” is the proper term to be used in a will to denote a gift of real property, although it has sometimes been construed as sufficient to pass personal property: Oothout v. Rogers, 15 N. Y. Supp. 120, 122.

It is true that the word “devise” is sometimes used in a will interchangeably with “bequeath,” and a departure from the precise use of these terms will not invalidate either the bequest or the devise, and no particular words are necessary to constitute a devise of real estate (Com. v. Hackett, 102 Pa. 505), but nevertheless the fact that the testator Harmstad used “bequeath” in paragraph three and “devise and bequeath” in paragraph four is some evidence that in paragraph three he had in contemplation only personal property, and in paragraph four he had in contemplation real property.

In order to sustain the appellant’s contention, we would have to hold that the symbol “&c” in paragraph three was sufficiently comprehensive to embrace the real estate. Appellant argues that in Pennsylvania residuary clauses expressly mentioning only personalty have been held to include real estate, and he cites Swentzell’s Est., 294 Pa. 261. In that case this court held that the words “personal estate” in a residuary clause of a will were sufficient to pass both real and personal property. In the will before us there is no residuary clause. Furthermore, the phrase “personal estate” as used in the Swentzell will is a much more comprehensive phrase than the symbol “&c” used in the will before us.

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Bluebook (online)
155 A. 875, 304 Pa. 302, 77 A.L.R. 874, 1931 Pa. LEXIS 500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fleck-v-harmstad-kingsley-pa-1931.