In re Dowe

64 A. 803, 68 N.J. Eq. 11, 2 Robb. 11, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 49
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedMarch 14, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 64 A. 803 (In re Dowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Dowe, 64 A. 803, 68 N.J. Eq. 11, 2 Robb. 11, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 49 (N.J. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

Magie, Chancellor.

Upon the petition filed in this matter an order of reference was made, and upon the coming in of Hie master’s report petitioners filed exceptions thereto, which have now been brought to hearing. The application seeks a distribution of a fund in court arising from a sale of lands made under an order of this court, pursuant [12]*12to the provisions of the act relating to the sale of lands limited over. The fund has remained in court during the lifetime of Jasper A. Cadmus, to whom, by an order of the court, seven-eighths of the income of the fund has been paid as it accrued. Jasper A. Cadmus is now dead and the fund is to be disposed of. The master’s report is in favor of a distribution'thereof, which is unsatisfactory to the petitioners. The exceptions to the report indicate three points on which it is insisted that the master has erred.

The second exception questions the propriety of the report which favors the payment to the executrix of Jasper A. Cadmus of the seven-eighths of the interest accrued upon the fund between the last payment of interest and his death.

The scheme of the act, as will be more fully stated hereafter, is to substitute for the lands directed to be sold the fund arisiirg from the proceeds of the sale, in which fund every person who had an interest in the lands has an equivalent interest. Jasper A. Cadmus, by the previous proceeding for the sale of those lands, was recognized as a tenant for life of the lands, and after sale as entitled to the larger part of the income of the fund arising from the sale, the remaining income being held, under the provisions of the act, to accumulate for those to whom the fund is to be distributed. If the lands had not been sold it is man if eat that Jasper A. Cadmus would have been entitled to have the use and the rents and profits thereof up to the day of his death, and that his rights would have fallen at his death to his personal representative. It therefore does not admit of a doubt, in my judgment, but that his executrix is entitled to the accrued but unpaid interest which would have been paid to her husband if he had survived.

The third exception attacks the finding of the master which excludes from the distribution the devisees of some of the children of Jasper A. Cadmus, who died in his lifetime, leaving no children.

The only petitioner who may be aggrieved by this finding is Mr. Scull, who claims under the will of one Benjamin F. Cad-mus. Mr. Morgan may have a claim under the will of his deceased wife, who was the original petitioner in the cause, but [13]*13he made no appearance before the master, and, so far as shown, makes no claim to the share which his wife would have been entitled to. The objection of the petitioner, Mr. Scull, however, brings the matter before me, so that I may indicate my opinion thereon.

I have reached the following conclusions:

1. The lands sold in this case were evidently treated by the chancellor who made the order for the sale as lands devised to Jasper and his issue, with remainder over.on failure of Jasper’s issue, and therefore as lands falling within the provisions of the eleventh section of the Descent act — that is, as lands which would have been held to be an estate in fee tail under the statute of 13 Edw. I. It is conceded in this argument that the provisions of that section are applicable, and that the devise thereunder vested in Jasper an estate for life only, and upon his death the same would go to and be vested in his children, to be divided between them as tenants in common.

2. The language of section 11, describing the estate of those who are to take after the death of the life tenant, is identical with the language used in section 10, which prescribes the mode in which estates formerly affected by the rule in Shelley’s Case should pass.

3. In Hopper v. Demarest, 22 N. J. Law (2 Zab.) 599, the language of section 10 was construed as vesting in the children of the life te.nant an estate in the lands.

4. In Lamprey v. Whitehead, 64. N. J. Eq. (19 Dick.) 408, I was obliged to consider the true construction of that section in the light of the decision in Hopper v. Demarest, but with reference to a situation which had not been disposed of by that decision. I held that the estate of a child of the life tenant must be considered to be so vested as to be a subject of conveyance, but that in pursuance of the express provision of the last clause of section 10 such an estate would be divested by the death of a child during the life of the life tenant, leaving a child or children.

5. It is impossible not to give the same construction to the identical words of section 11 in the same act, and it follows, in my judgment, that (a) any child who has survived the life tenant [14]*14is no longer subject .to any contingency, but his or her estate has become absolute; (5) any child who died before the life tenant, leaving children, was divested of her estate in favor of the children; and (c) any'estate so vested in a child (though subject to be divested) might be the subject of a conveyance by deed or will and would pass by descent. If not divested by the happening of the contingency contemplated by the statute, viz., death during the life of the life tenant leaving, a child or children, the grantee, devisee or heir-at-law of such child would become entitled thereto.

The report proceeds upon the theory that only the surviving children of Jasper A. Cadmus and the children of a deceased child, who died in his lifetime) are entitled to distribution. As this, in my judgment, is erroneous, the exception must be sustained and the matter referred'to the master to report how the fund should be distributed, and to whom, upon the'principles above stated.

The only remaining exception is that directed to the finding of the master to the effect that Sarah M.- Cadmus, the widow of Jasper A. Cadmus, was entitled to a dower right in the lands and is entitled to such right in the fund, and to his report that one-third of the fund should be retained in this court and the income thereof paid to her during her life.

Assuming that the estate devised to Jasper has been treated, and rightly treated, in this court, as an estate tail, subject to the provisions of the eleventh section of the Descent act, it follows that the widow of the life tenant was entitled to dower therein, because 'that section expressly gives it to 'her, and the report must be confirmed unless some of the contentions of the ex-ceptants are good.

It is first contended that the act under which those lands have been sold impliedly' repeals the provisions of section 11 of the Descent act, so far as dower is concerned, because the dowrer right is not expressly excepted from the provisions of the act or saved from a sale thereunder, and because, by reason of 'the sale, that was made by order o'f the court; Jasper did not die seized of the lands. This contention is wholly inadmissible, for the provision for distribution of the fund, made by section 6 of [15]*15the act, requires the proceeds of the- sale to go to anyone holding the absolute fee or any share therein after the death of the life tenant.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mt. Freedom Presbyterian Church v. Osborne
195 A.2d 907 (New Jersey Superior Court App Division, 1963)
Sketchley v. Campton
132 A. 671 (New Jersey Court of Chancery, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 A. 803, 68 N.J. Eq. 11, 2 Robb. 11, 1904 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-dowe-njch-1904.