Pulse v. Osborn

64 N.E. 59, 30 Ind. App. 631, 1902 Ind. App. LEXIS 258
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 23, 1902
DocketNo. 3,749
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 64 N.E. 59 (Pulse v. Osborn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pulse v. Osborn, 64 N.E. 59, 30 Ind. App. 631, 1902 Ind. App. LEXIS 258 (Ind. Ct. App. 1902).

Opinion

Roby, J.

Appellee, guardian, filed his complaint against appellants. A demurrer for want of facts was overruled. It is alleged in the complaint that Culver M. Ilillis, appellee’s ward, and Dwight Charlton, who, with his guardian, John G. Pulse, was made a defendant, were owners in fee simple as tenants in common of lot seventeen in block three in Ireland’s addition to the city of Greensburg, each owning an undivided one-half thereof; that said lot was indivisible and that they both “are holding title” by virtue of that portion of the will of Catherine Black, deceased, which reads as follows, to wit: “First. I give and bequeath to my daughter Tillie A. Dills my house and lot in which I now live, subject to the conditions hereinafter stated. And I further direct that in case of the death of my daughter, Tillie A., before the death of my grandchildren, or either of them, all of her legacies given in any item of this will shall revert or descend to my surviving grandchildren, or either of them if the other is dead, to the exclusion of her surviving husband, if he survives her. If _ either legatee dies his or her portion shall go to the survivor.” That said Ilillis and Charlton were and are the only grandchildren of said Catherine Black; that said Tillie A. Dills was then deceased; that Judson Dills, as administrator of her estate, and in his individual capacity was claiming an interest adverse to that of said Ilillis and Charlton, and has no interest therein; that the lot mentioned in item one of-the will is the “same lot seventeen above described.” Wherefore partition was prayed.

If the parties named were tenants in common the right to have partition was .conferred by the statute. §1204 Burns 1901. Whether they were such tenants depends upon- the provisions of the will applied to existing facts. The daughter, Tillie A. Dills, took, upon the death of the [633]*633testatrix, Catherine Black, a fee in the real estate described, subject to' be defeated in event of her death occurring during the lifetime of any of the testatrix’s grandchildren. The estate taken by her was more than a life estate. Such estate ends with the life upon which it depends. This one might have been of perpetual continuance. It was. therefore a fee. It was liable to be determined by an event expressed in the instrument creating it. It was therefore a determinable fee. 1 Washburn, Real Property (6th ed.), §§167, 168; Outland v. Bowen, 115 Ind. 150-153, 7 Am. St. 420; Green v. Wilson, 108 Ind. 322-326.

Had the grandchildren died before the daughter, nothing in this land would have descended to their heirs. They had, until her death, no vested right. Their interest consisted of a naked possibility. That the possibility has since become an actuality in nowise affects the character of the estate devised. A controlling purpose of the testatrix seems to have been that the full benefit of this provision should be secured by any single grandchild surviving the daughter, Tillie A. Dills. “If either legatee dies, his or her portion shall go to tlie_ survivors,” taken with the rest of the clause, means no more than a reaffirmance of this intent. Words of survivorship generally are considered to refer to the death of the testator. Corey v. Springer, 138 Ind. 506-510. Where there is an express or implied intention to fix another time, such intention will be given effect. Corey v. Springer, supra, at 510; Wood v. Robertson, 113 Ind. 323. The provision under consideration, ac'cording to the natural use of language, had reference to the death of Tillie A. Dills, and not to the death of the testatrix. Coveny v. McLaughlin, 148 Mass. 576, 20 N. E. 165, 2 L. R. A. 448; Denny v. Kettell, 135 Mass. 138; Wood v. Bullard, 151 Mass. 324, 25 N. E. 67, 7 L. R. A. 304.

The testatrix, is not presumed, in the absence of a clear expression to that effect, to have attempted to restrain indefinitely the alienation of real estate. Her intention was [634]*634to secure its enjoyment to the grandchildren surviving the daughter. The moment the contingency upon which they were to take occurred, the estate vested in the testatrix’s grandchildren, Ilillis and Charlton (Page, Wills, 670, 671), and they became tenants in common thereof. This construction accords with the spirit of the instrument and the policy of the law, which favors tenancies in common, and the speedy distribution of land. §3341 Burns 1901; Johnson v. Johnson, 128 Ind. 93. The demurrer to the complaint was properly overruled.

Judson Dills, administrator of the estate of Tillie A., by a separate answer, and also jointly with the other defendants, asked that he be repaid sums expended by his decedent in the improvement of said real estate. It is alleged that the value of the same was enhanced by said improvements to the amount of $1,300. Demurrers were sustained to these answers. They show that Tillie A. Dills, at the time the improvements were made, held said property under the provisions of the will above quoted, and she is therefore presumed to have had full knowledge of the conditions therein contained, and of her own title. She was not an occupying claimant, but the actual owner of the land. Section 1087 Burns 1901, enabling an occupying claimant, who has in good faith made valuable improvements upon land of which he is afterwards found not to be the rightful owner, to recover, the value of said improvements, does not apply. In making these improvements she acted with her eyes open, and at her own peril. Richwine v. Presbyterian Church, 135 Ind. 80-85. She was not a life tenant, but so far as the right to recover the value of improvements made by her,' — the estate having passed from her, — is concerned, the same rule applies that would apply had she been a life tenant. That which would have been in the one case always certain was in the other always possible. She used the property, and while she was not bound to make improvements, having made them, the -present owners can. not be [635]*635required to compensate her or her representatives therefor. Miller v. Shields, 55 Ind. 71; Parish v. Camplin, 139 Ind. 1, 15; Clark v. Middlesworth, 82 Ind. 240.

The principle is illustrated by Bryan v. Uland, 101 Ind. 477, in which purchasers from a childless second wife, of real estate of which at her death her husband’s children by the prior marriage became 'forced heirs, were not permitted to recover on account of improvements made by them, they having knowledge of the fact that she was a childless second wife. Money invested in such improvements by Tillie A. Dills was voluntarily invested. ISTo claim of other title than that conferred by the will is set up, and there was no error in the ruling upon the demurrers to these answers.

The separate answer of Pulse, guardian of Dwight Charlton, avers that in April, 1897, Tillie A. Dills, deceased, was the guardian of said Charlton, and occupying the property described in the complaint; that the deceased, Catherine Black, had departed life before said time; “that said Tillie A. Dills, with the moneys of this defendant’s ward, made lasting and valuable improvements on said real estate, of the value of $1,000, and the value of said real estate was enhanced to that extent; that afterward, on the -day of October, 1898, the said Tillie A.

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Bluebook (online)
64 N.E. 59, 30 Ind. App. 631, 1902 Ind. App. LEXIS 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pulse-v-osborn-indctapp-1902.