Henderson's Estate

29 Pa. D. & C. 1, 1937 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 218
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County
DecidedFebruary 11, 1937
Docketno. 563 of 1936
StatusPublished

This text of 29 Pa. D. & C. 1 (Henderson's Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henderson's Estate, 29 Pa. D. & C. 1, 1937 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 218 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1937).

Opinion

Klein, J.,

Decedent died in 1933, a widower, leaving six children to survive him. Most of his modest fortune was invested in mortgages. During the last years of his life he dealt with these mortgages in a most irregular manner. The present controversy is but part of extensive litigation instituted by the children in an attempt to unscramble his unorthodox dealings.

We shall first deal with the exceptions filed on behalf of accountant, and in the order in which the questions they raise are discussed in the adjudication.

These exceptions are all improperly drawn. Exceptions should set forth clearly, not only the alleged error of the auditing judge in making his awards, but also his alleged error in not making the awards which exceptants claim he should have made: Farrell’s Estate, 1 D. & C. 128 (1921). Accountant’s exceptions do neither. We have, however, overlooked this irregularity in order to expedite these proceedings. We assume, after reading the exceptions and counsel’s brief, that no objection is made to [3]*3the award with respect to the mortgage of $3,000 secured on 2000 North Marvine Street. We therefore refrain from discussing this award, except to state that we are in accord with the auditing judge’s conclusion.

William M. Henderson, also referred to as Melvin Henderson, one of decedent’s sons, entered a claim for $3,000 with interest arising from a mortgage in that amount secured upon 1412 Dickinson Street, Philadelphia. On April 15, 1920, decedent recorded an assignment of this mortgage to his son. On September 14, 1926, he signed his son’s name in satisfaction of this mortgage on the margin of the mortgage book in the recorder of deeds’ office and appropriated the proceeds to his own use. There is nothing in the record to indicate that the son had any knowledge of any part of this transaction in decedent’s lifetime. The learned auditing judge awarded the son $3,000 with interest from the date of decedent’s death, upon the theory that a relationship of life tenant and remainderman existed between decedent and this son. Although we agree with the auditing judge’s conclusion, we are not in accord with the theory upon which he made the award.

Henderson et al. v. Hughes, 320 Pa. 124, recently decided by the Supreme Court, arose from similar transactions involving this decedent and other of his children. The court, in that case, ruled that the recording of an assignment of mortgage constituted a valid gift inter vivos and passed title to the donee. Therefore, the recording of the assignment of the mortgage in question passed title to the mortgage to claimant and divested decedent of all dominion over it. When he signed his son’s name to the satisfaction of the mortgage in 1926 and appropriated the proceeds, he was guilty of an unlawful misappropriation. The question to be determined by us now is whether the son’s claim is barred by the statute of limitations.

The law is well settled that for a trust to be free from the operation of the statute it must be: (1) Direct and continuing; (2) exclusively cognizable in equity; (3) [4]*4arising between trustee and cestui que trust: Yorks’ Appeal, 110 Pa. 69, 79 (1885).

In Finney v. Cochran, 1 W. & S. 112, 118 (1841), our Supreme Court ruled that trusts arising from the misapplication of funds are within the provisions of the statute of limitations. The court said:

“No doubt the defendant was a trustee, and as such received the moneys upon the bonds which were committed to his charge by the plaintiff. The receipts given by the defendant for the bonds, upon which he received the moneys afterwards, show clearly that the trust was express and direct. Every person who receives money to be paid to another, or to be applied to a particular purpose, to which he does not apply it, is a trustee, and may be sued, either at law, for money had and received, or in equity, as a trustee for a breach of trust. . . . The word Trust’ is frequently used in a very comprehensive sense; and to hold that the statute of limitations is not applicable to any cases which may, even with propriety, be denominated cases of trust, would, in a great measure, defeat, as I apprehend, the plain and manifest intention of the legislature. . . . The trust in the present case was clearly cognizable at law; and for a breach of it, the plaintiff might, at any time, have maintained an action at law, in order to be redressed, if he had not delayed so long as to let the statute interpose a bar to his doing so.”

Hostetter v. Hollinger, 117 Pa. 606 (1888), and Dorrance v. Ryon, 35 Pa. Superior Ct. 180 (1908), are to the same effect.

Since claimant clearly had the right to institute proceedings at law to recover the money taken by his father, his claim would be barred by the statute of limitations unless the concealment by the father takes the transaction out of the operation of the act.

The cases dealing with the effect of concealment upon the operation of the statute of limitations were carefully reviewed in the recent decision of Deemer et al. v. Weaver, [5]*5Executrix, 324 Pa. 85 (1936). Mr. Justice Barnes, speaking for the Supreme Court, said at page 88:

“The fundamental principle stated in Smith v. Blachley [198 Pa. 173,175], is that ‘in eases of fraud the statute runs only from discovery, or from when with reasonable diligence there ought to have been discovery.’ If by any act of concealment or deceit, whether before, or at the same time or after the act is committed, the wrongdoer hides from the innocent party the facts which would put him upon inquiry, the statute does not begin to run: Lewey v. Fricke Coke Co., 166 Pa. 536; Hall v. Penna. R. R. Co., 257 Pa. 54; Schwab v. Cornell, 306 Pa. 536; Cloyd v. Reynolds, 44 Pa. Superior Ct. 81; Kalin v. Wehrle, 36 Pa. Superior Ct. 305. In Schwab v. Cornell, supra, at p. 539, Mr. Justice Schaffer stated the principle applicable in cases of this kind, ‘If the circumstances are such that a man’s eyes should have been open to what is occurring, then the statute begins to run from the time when he could have seen, but if by concealment, through fraud or otherwise, a screen has been erected by his adversary which effectually obscures the view of what has happened, the statute remains quiescent until actual knowledge arises.’ ”

In the present ease, the act of decedent in forging his son’s name to the satisfaction of the mortgage completely and effectively hid from him the facts which would have put him on notice. There is nothing in the circumstances which would have given the son cause for inquiry. He is therefore not chargeable with what an investigation would have disclosed.

The award of the auditing judge in allowing this claim for $3,000 was therefore proper. There is considerable doubt as to the date from which interest should begin to run. However, no exceptions were taken by claimant to the award which allows interest from date of decedent’s death. It will therefore be so awarded.

A different situation exists, however, with respect to this son’s claim for $2,500 arising from the mortgage [6]*6on 709 Andrews Avenue, Collingdale, Pa. Decedent recorded an assignment of this mortgage to another son, Howard M. Henderson, on October 7,1918. This son died November 27, 1921. By assignment dated December 29, 1922, more than a year after his death, this mortgage was transferred to William M. Henderson, claimant.

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Related

Henderson v. Hughes
182 A. 392 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1935)
Wallace's Estate
174 A. 897 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1934)
Hochman v. Mortgage Finance Corp.
137 A. 252 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1927)
Deemer v. Weaver, Exrx.
187 A. 215 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1936)
Schwab v. Cornell
160 A. 449 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1932)
Phillips v. Allegheny Valley Railroad
107 Pa. 465 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1884)
Yorks's Appeal
1 A. 162 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1885)
Hostetter v. Hollinger
12 A. 741 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1888)
Lewey v. H. C. Fricke Coke Co.
31 A. 261 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1895)
Smith v. Blachley
47 A. 985 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1901)
Bowers' Estate
87 A. 711 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1913)
Hall v. Pennsylvania Railroad
100 A. 1035 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1916)
Morrett v. Fire Ass'n
108 A. 171 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1919)
First Nationall Bank v. Dissinger
109 A. 626 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
Gwinn v. Lee
6 Pa. Super. 646 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1898)
Kalin v. Wehrle
36 Pa. Super. 305 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1908)
Cloyd v. Reynolds
44 Pa. Super. 81 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1910)
Finney v. Cochran
1 Watts & Serg. 112 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1841)
Dorrance v. Ryon
35 Pa. Super. 180 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1908)

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Bluebook (online)
29 Pa. D. & C. 1, 1937 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hendersons-estate-paorphctphilad-1937.