Phillips Estate

82 Pa. D. & C. 69, 1953 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 244
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County
DecidedJanuary 23, 1953
Docketno. 2499 of 1952
StatusPublished

This text of 82 Pa. D. & C. 69 (Phillips 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
Phillips Estate, 82 Pa. D. & C. 69, 1953 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 244 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1953).

Opinion

Shoyer, J.,

The single issue, is whether testatrix gave her husband merely a life estate in her realty or, in addition, a power to consume.

The will, composed of but one sentence, and written by testatrix in her own hand while in the hospital 'on the day of her death, is as follows:

“I Mary Phillips everything left to My Husband nickolas Phillips As most of the things aré in my name and after he is gone I want the rest of my estate if there is any I want to be left to My daughter to be hers”.

[70]*70Both sides agree, and we think rightly, that under this will the husband, Nickolas, takes less than an absolute fee simple estate.

Testatrix left a gross estate of $4,833.20.

The personalty has been consumed in payment of debts, administration expenses and family exemption, leaving only the homestead for distribution.

The auditing judge has likened the above language to that in Byrne’s Estate, 320 Pa. 513 (1935), where the court found a power to consume in the life tenant with a valid remainder over to testatrix’s niece. Because the present estate for distribution consists solely of real estate, however, Taylor v. Bell, 158 Pa. 651 (1893), was ruled to be controlling, and the auditing judge held that the life estate in Nickolas did not include the power to consume.

While Taylor v. Bell has never been expressly overruled by our Supreme Court, review of many later cases convinces us that the doctrine of that case and Fox’s Appeal, 99 Pa. 382 (1882), Follweiler’s Appeal, 102 Pa. 581 (1883),-and Cox v. Sims, 125 Pa. 522 (1889), which it followed, has long been ignored in favor of a construction which more accurately carries out the wishes of testator.

In both Kennedy v. Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad Company, 216 Pa. 575 (1907), and Allen v. Hirlinger, 219 Pa. 56, 60 (1907), testator had given his widow an estate for life in all his property, but with an express power to consume, and with gift over to designated persons of the unconsumed portions. Both cases had been brought to determine the marketability of real estate and in each instance our Supreme Court held that the widow could convey a good title.

■ The Allen case was appealed first to the Superior Court which, relying upon Follweiler’s Appeal, supra, and Cox v. Sims, supra, had held that the power of consumption must relate only to personalty because [71]*71an implied power to sell real estate could not be inferred merely from the use of language applicable to the personalty alone.

Our Supreme Court distinguished the Follweiler and Cox decisions, reversed the Superior Court, and held that the widow could convey a good title, saying:

“When the wife dies ‘whatever may then remain of the estate, real, personal or mixed, I desire that the same remaining portion, if any, be given to my daughter.’ No distinction is made again between the real and the personal estate, and an equal power to consume is implied in the expressed doubt ‘if any’ as to there being any unconsumed residue of either.”

In Keown’s Estate, 238 Pa. 343 (1913), a testamentary gift of all testator’s property with an express “power to sell transfer and make title,” with a gift over of “the property remaining” set forth in the next paragraph, was held to bestow upon the widow a life estate with power to consume the realty for maintenance only.

In Fassitt v. Seip, 240 Pa. 406, 411 (1913), testator gave his wife “all .... of My Estate, Real, personal and mixed .... to have Use, and enjoy the Same, in like manner as I myself Could do if living.” In the next clause testator provided, “Whatever of my [his] Said estate, that may remain Unexpended after the decease of My [his] wife . .” should be divided among his children.

The widow conveyed away three properties which were promptly reconveyed to her by the grantees and all “remained intact at the time of her death, and in the same condition in which she had received them from the testator.”

In an action of ejectment between her devisees and the remaindermen in testator’s will, the court pointed out that under the Act of April 8, 1833, P. L. 249, [72]*72words of inheritance or perpetuity were unnecessary to pass a fee, but here there was a devise over to specifically designated remaindermen who were entitled to the “unexpended” balance which the wife might have consumed in her lifetime but did not.

“He intended that his wife should have every use and enjoyment of his residuary estate that he himself had while living. If necessary for her comfort and maintenance she could have consumed and expended all of it, and for these purposes could have conveyed a fee simple title to a bona fide purchaser. But this she did not do. ... Not having consumed the residuary estate of her husband in her lifetime the wife could not dispose of it by will.”

Hege v. Ickes, 267 Pa. 57, 60 (1920) , marks the first real departure of our Supreme Court from the doctrine of Taylor v. Bell, although that decision had also been urged on the appellate court in both the Kennedy and Keown cases as well. Testator’s devise of his real and personal estate to his wife lacked any express power of sale or consumption, as existed in the above cases, but was merely “to have and to hold for her natural life and at her death, should she have any of my estate left, I would will that my adopted daughter, Mabel Kieffer Hege, should have the sum of one thousand dollars, and should there be any balance of my estate it should descend according to the laws of the State of Pennsylvania.”

At the time of his death testator owned real estate of approximately. $10,000 and also personalty which was sold for payment of debts. The wife’s right to sell the realty was upheld in a case stated to determine the marketability of her title.

The court said:

“The words quoted [‘any of my estate left’] indicate testator had in mind the thought that his wife might consume the entire estate before her death and pos[73]*73sibly no part would remain to pay the legacy and for distribution among the heirs. If power to consume a part or all of the estate was not intended, why should testator .make provision for a conditional gift over in case there ‘should’ be ‘any of my estate left’ at the wife’s death? Had he intended a gift for life only no necessity existed for the use of language indicating a doubt as to whether an unused portion would be left, inasmuch as a doubt as to the existence of a balance could be determined at the time of his death, and whatever realty testator owned at that time would necessarily be in existence at the death of his wife, if she were without right to use any part of the corpus. The power to consume, though not formally expressed, must therefore be implied to carry out testator’s intention:” (citing cases).

It is to be noted that while the will failed to specify that the unexpended “balance” might consist of real estate as well as personalty, the court without hesitation held the implied power of consumption to apply to realty without making any distinction between the two forms of property.

The headnote of the Hege case, reporting that the wife took an absolute fee simple estate, was corrected by our Supreme Court in Edwards et al. v. Newland, 271 Pa. 1, 5 (1921), where the court preferred to follow its recent ruling rather than its earlier decision of Taylor v.

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Fox's Appeal
99 Pa. 382 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1882)
Follweiler's Appeal
102 Pa. 581 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1883)
Cox v. Sims
17 A. 465 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1889)
Taylor v. Bell
28 A. 208 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1893)
Kennedy v. Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad
65 A. 1102 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1907)
Allen v. Hirlinger
67 A. 907 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1907)
Keown's Estate
86 A. 270 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1913)
Fassitt v. Seip
87 A. 957 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1913)
Hege v. Ickes
110 A. 238 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
Houser v. Houser
112 A. 29 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
Kiebler v. McCutcheon
112 A. 543 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1921)
Long's Estate
113 A. 675 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1921)
Edwards v. Newland
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Walker's Estate
121 A. 318 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1923)

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Bluebook (online)
82 Pa. D. & C. 69, 1953 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phillips-estate-paorphctphilad-1953.