Hoover v. Hoover

5 Pa. 351, 1847 Pa. LEXIS 63
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 9, 1847
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 5 Pa. 351 (Hoover v. Hoover) 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
Hoover v. Hoover, 5 Pa. 351, 1847 Pa. LEXIS 63 (Pa. 1847).

Opinion

Bell, J.

It is admitted by the defendant’s answer, as indeed it could not, with any show of reason, have been denied, that the sum of $7250, bequeathed by the testator to be paid to his children in the proportions and' at the time mentioned' in his will, is a charge upon the lands devised to David. It is also admitted that the latter, in pursuance of the will, took possession of the lands devised, and still continues in the seisin and occupation of them. Upon these facts alone, it is not to be disputed that, having taken the land cum onere, he is bound to pay to his brothers and sisters their several legacies as they respectively fall- due, and this liability may. be enforced by a proceeding in the Orphan’s Court, such as has been instituted here, under the statute giving the specific remedy. By the terms of this will, not only is a lien created-, on the land devised, but the devisee, immediately upon his acceptance of it, became personally responsible to the legatees for the amount of their respective legacies. As is said in Glen v. Fisher, 6 Johns. C. R. 33, a case which cannot, in this particular, be distinguisbed from the present, by acceptance, the devisee becomes absolutely bound for the legacies, and cannot set up any condition [355]*355precedent to it, for the law, makes none. He who accepts a benefit •under a will, must conform to all its provisions, and renounce every right inconsistent with them. To the same effect' is the doctrine of our own case of Lobach, 6 Watts, 167, which, in its leading features, is also very similar to the present. ’ The testator, said Mr. Justice Kennedy, in delivering the opinion of the court, not only intended to charge the land, but to make it a personal charge on the devisee, and he became personally liable on taking possession under the will. These distinct liabilities are illustrated by the consideration that the éstate given to David may be treated as an ■estate on condition. In a will, no precise form of words is necessary to create a condition. Any expressions denoting such an intention will have that effect. Thus a devise to A., “ he paying,” or “ he to pay ¿6500 in one year after my decease,” would, it is said, be a condition for the breach of which the heir might enter; 2 Powell on Devises, 251; Barnardiston v. Fane, 2 Vern. 366; S. C. 1 Eq. Ca. Abr. 109, pl. 8. But in such a case equity would •afford relief against the forfeiture, on payment of principal, interest and costs; 1 Powell on Devises, 195, n. 7 ; and it is not to be •doubted that, on application of the party entitled to payment out of the land devised, the devisee would be compelled to perform the •condition, on the principle that no man shall be allowed to disappoint a will under which he takes a benefit; [Per Eyre, Chief Baron, in Blake v. Banbery, 1 Ves. jun. 523.) But thé defendant, David Hoover, endeavours to escape from the responsibility he has thus assumed, by showing that, although five instalments of $700 each were due, and payable under the will of the testator, at the time the plaintiff filed his bill in the .Orphan’s Court, these were not sufficient in amount to cover a balance of debts remaining due from the testator’s estate, after exhausting the personal estate and other lands not devised; and, therefore, he avers “there are no assets of the estate of the said John Hoover, deceased, in his hands, which he could apply to the payment of the legacy of Michael Hoover, nor is there any annual payment due and payable out of the land so as aforesaid devised to him, which he can legally and safely apply to the payment of the said legacy or any part thereof.” This averment proceeds upon the notion that, although the aggregate sum charged on the land, arid which, as we have seen, has become the personal debt of the devisee, is directed to be paid in ascertained legacies and by way of residuary bequest to the other children of the testator, yet that is subject to be first appropriated in payment of the debts due from his estate, leaving only any [356]*356balance that may remain, applicable in satisfaction of the legacies, pro rata. This view seems to have been adopted by the Orphan’s Court, and to have led it to the support of the defendant’s answer by a dismissal of the plaintiff’s bill with costs. But in this, we are of opinion the court was clearly wrong. Viewed as a personal liability attaching upon the devisee, there can be no pretence whatever to say the plaintiff’s legacy is liable to be defeated by the fact that the testator died indebted in a larger amount than his personal estate was sufficient to discharge. This legacy is made directly payable by the devisee to the legatee, without the intervention of the executor, who alone has to do with the payment of his testator’s debts. That the devisee was also executor can make no difference, for the land devised did not pass to him in that character, but as devisee, and his acceptance of it immediately raised a promise to pay the sums charged upon it, irrespective of the testator’s debts-. It may be true the latter acted upon a mistake as to the amount of these debts, and that a consequence will be a diminution of the-benefit intended to be conferred by him on his devisee; still this acceptance by the latter of the thing devised, subject to the burden expressly imposed on it, closes his mouth from averring, as a defence to the plaintiff’s claim, tliat there are no’assets of the estate of the deceased in his hands applicable to the payment of the legacy. The right of the legatees to claim payment at the hands of the devisee, does not rest upon assets, as such, in his possession, but upon his liability as devisee, holding under the same will that gives birth to their interests.

But if we put out of view the personal responsibilities of the devisee, and treat this as a case in which a chancellor would marshal assets as between creditors, devisees, and legatees, it will be found the defence set up here is equally unavailing. In this aspect, the legacies must be regarded as demonstrative, and, in some sort, partaking of the nature - of specific legacies, as charged upon a particular fund specially appropriated to their payment; Ward on Leg. 21. This fund is the devised land which, it is not denied, is sufficient for the payment of the balance of the testator’s debts, and the legacies bequeathed. The established order of the application of the several funds liable to the payment of debts is definitively settled by adjudged cases, and is thus generally stated by text writers upon this subject. 1. The general personal estate not expressly, or by implication, exempted. 2. Lands expressly devised to pay debts. 3. Estates descended to the heir. 4. Devised lands, charged with the payment of debts generally, whether [357]*357devised in terms general or specific, (every devise of land being in its nature specific.) 5. General pecuniary legacies, pro rata. 6. Specific legacies, pro rata. 7. Real estate devised, whether in terms, general or specific; 2 Powell on Dev. 667, 668, and cases there cited. In this instance the first- and third class of assets have been exhausted, without fully satisfying the debts; and this testator did not expressly devise any lands for their payment. Nor did he charge any of his lands with the payment of his debts generally, so far as we are enabled to ascertain from the paper-book, which, however, does not set out the whole of his will. But with us, all the lands of a decedent, whether descended or devised, are, by law, charged with the payment of his debts, and, as is intimated in Manning v. Spooner, 3 Ves. 118, and expressly said by Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
5 Pa. 351, 1847 Pa. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoover-v-hoover-pa-1847.