Lewis v. Howe

64 A.D. 572, 72 N.Y.S. 851
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Lewis v. Howe. Read the opinion of the Court — 64 A.D. 44

Opinion

Rumsey, J.:

This action was brought for the determination of a claim to real property. Upon the trial at Special Term- the plaintiff had a judgment substantially for the relief demanded in the complaint. From that judgment this appeal is taken. It is claimed that neither the plaintiff nor her grantor had such possession as would entitle the plaintiff to maintain this action, but in the view we have taken of the case this question need not he determined. The facts are not disputed and are found as shortly as may be in the decision of the court at Special Term.

On the 29th of October, 1853, one Charles G. Case was the owner in fee and in possession of the premises which are the subject- of this action. On that day he made a deed to Chesbro and Hull,, as. “ Trustees for Charles James Case, son of the said C. G: Casey and the lawful heirs of the said Charles James. Case.”

By this deed it was among other things agreed that the grantor and his wife should retain full possession of the premises during their lives, and that it was not until after their decease that the said Charles James Case or his wife or children should take any rights under the trust therein created. It was further provided by the deed that at the death of the wife of the grantor the premises thereby conveyed should vest ” in the child or children of Charles-James Case then living. Charles James Case himself had no interest in the premises in any event. Charles James Case, the son, died before the 20th of May, 1874, leaving Charles G.. Case, 2d, his only son and heir at law. On the 20th day of May, 1874, Charles G. Cáse, 2d, and his wife, with the two named in the deed as ■ trustees, delivered to Charles G. Case, the elder, a quitclaim deed of the property mentioned in the deed of October 29, 1853. Charles G. Case, the elder, died on the 9th day of December, 1875, leaving a widow. Charles G. Case, 2d, the grantor in the deed of May 20, [575]*5751874, was his grandchild and his only heir at law. By the will of Charles Gr. Case he gave the property in question to Mary .Juliette Porter. She died in 1892 leaving the defendants her heirs at law.

The plaintiff claims that although by the deed of October 29, 1853, the trustees named therein obtained no title to the premises, they had a power in trust requiring them to convey to Charles Gr. Case, 2d, after the death of his grandmother; that Charles Gr. Case, 2d, never had any title or interest in the premises and, therefore, his quitclaim deed to his grandfather made on the 20th of May, 1874, was void; that all of the interest of Charles G-. Case, 2d, was the right in equity to compel the trustees to execute the power in trust given to them by the deed of October 29,1853; that by a deed from Charles Gr. Case 2d, to the plaintiff made on the 1st day of February, 1899, the plaintiff obtained the legal title to these premises and, therefore, is the owner of them and entitled to maintain this action.

It must be assumed that the legal title which the plaintiff obtained came in some way from Charles Gr. Case, 2d. That title must have been the one he acquired as heir at law of his grandfather; but as by his will the grandfather devised his title to Mrs. Porter, the ancestor of the defendants, it is not plainly perceived just how any title descended to Charles Gr. Case, 2d, after the death of his grandmother ; but that is not very important in the consideration of this case. The important question is whether by the deed of tictober 29, 1853, any title whatever vested in Charles Gr. Case, 2d, so that after the death of his grandfather and his grandmother he would be the owner of the premises in question, and if such title did vest then, whether he was on the 20th day of May, 1874, when he conveyed to his grandfather, vested of any estate in the land which would pass by a quitclaim deed, and whether, if he was, the grandfather became the owner of whatever interest the grandson had.

It is held by the learned justice who decided this case that by the deed of 1853 the trustees took no right, title or interest in the land. That necessarily follows from 1 Bevised Statutes, 728 (§ 49), Beal Property Law (Laws of 1896, chap. 547, §§ 72, 73), because the trustee had no right of possession, nor to the rents and profits. (Seidelbach v. Knaggs, 44 App. Div. 169; affd., 167 N. Y. 585.) But although the trustees took no title to this property, it does not [576]*576follow that the deed was’nót. sufficient to pass the title "to somebody. By section 72 of the Beal Property Law, which was formerly section ' 47 of that part of the Be vised Statutes- treating of uses, and trusts (1 B. S. 727)," it i's provided that every pers'on who by virtue of any grant is entitled to the actual possession of real property and to the receipt of the rents and profits thereof in law or-in equity,, shall be deemed to have á legal estate therein of .the same quality and duration and subject to the same conditions as his beneficial interest, so that if, by the deed of 1853, any person became entitled to the rents and profits of the premises therein by virtue of that deed, he undoubtedly had the legal estate to the same extent. That deed gave to the trustees .no right to take the rents ¡and profits of the real estate, nor. was the trust one which was - valid under what was then- section 55 of the Law of Uses and Trusts (1 B. S." 728), and is now section 76 of the Beal Property Laiv; therefore, the trustee could in no event take the title to the property mentioned in the deed. It is claimed, however, that the trust created by the deed of October 29, .1853, being valid as a power under section 79 -of the Beal Property Law, the land must' remain in or descend to the persons otherwise entitled subject to the execution of the power, but necessarily that provision of section 79 only applies to a case where the deed attempting to create a trust does not make a disposition of the rents and' profits, or-of the real property to which the trust relates. If it does make a disposition of that property, then, under section 72 above cited,, the title vests in the person who is entitled to the rents and profits. By the' deed of 1853 it is seen that the grantor and his wife were to retain the full possession of the • premises during their lives. Undoubtedly the legal effect of that was that they should have a legal estate therein for their lives.

It further appears that if Charles G. Case left a child or children him surviving at the time of the decease of the older Charles G. Case and his wife, the premises conveyed by the deed were to vest ” in that child. Charles G. Case died before the 20th day of May, 1874. Whoever was then Ms .child, if he had one, became necessarily the person in whom this property was to vest by this. deed. That person was Charles G. Case, 2d. By the express terms of the deed he was the person in whom, if living, the property should vest [577]*577at the death of his grandfather and grandmother. The word “ vest” was effectual to give to him the property.- He became the owner of it- by the use of that word. (28 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 442; Bouv. L. Diet. tit. “Vest.”) Ho deed of anybody was necessary to give to him the legal title because by the express terms of that deed the property vested in him. He became entitled to it and to the rents and profits immediately after the death of his grandparents, and the necessary effect under the provisions of section 72 of the Beal Property Law was to give him the legal estate.

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Lewis v. Howe, 64 A.D. 572, 72 N.Y.S. 851 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1901).

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