Walker v. Colvin

85 Pa. D. & C. 225, 1953 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 276
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Cambria County
DecidedMarch 16, 1953
Docketno. 149
StatusPublished

This text of 85 Pa. D. & C. 225 (Walker v. Colvin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Cambria County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walker v. Colvin, 85 Pa. D. & C. 225, 1953 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 276 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1953).

Opinion

Griffith, J.,

This is an action to quiet title to real estate. Defendants filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings.

The question before the court is whether plaintiff, Arthur J. Walker, is the sole owner of the premises described in the complaint as the surviving tenant by the entireties of his deceased wife, Mattie J. Walker, or whether he owns only an undivided two-thirds interest in the same, having been a tenant in common of the undivided one-half interest, and having acquired one-third of his wife’s undivided one-half interest from her under the intestate laws.

Arthur J. Walker and his wife took title in 1909 as tenants by the entireties. In 1916, by a recorded deed, the wife, without the joinder of her husband and for the consideration of $1, conveyed to her husband, Arthur J. Walker, “all that undivided one-half [226]*226interest in and to” the premises. In the recital clause the deed contained the following sentence: “The object of this deed is for Mrs. Mattie J. Walker to convey her undivided interest in the above described lot to Arthur J. Walker, her husband.”

In 1939, by recorded deed, Arthur J. Walker, without the joinder of his wife, and for the nominal consideration of $1, conveyed to her “all that undivided one-half interest in and to” the same premises. The recital clause in this deed contained the following sentence.: “The object of this deed is for Arthur J. Walker to convey half the undivided interest in the above described lot to Mattie J. Walker, his wife (a joint deed).”

Mattie J. Walker died on March 6, 1952, leaving to survive her her husband, Arthur J. Walker, plaintiff, two children and four grandchildren, who were the children óf a deceased child, and who are defendants in this proceeding.

The question of law before the court is whether or not one tenant by the entireties may convey his interest to the other without the joinder of the spouse.

We shall first consider the deed made in 1916 by the wife to her husband, without his joinder.

It is well settled that one/spouse cannot destroy the incidents of a tenancy by the entireties without the assent of the other: Beihl v. Martin, 236 Pa. 519; Berhalter v. Berhalter et al., 315 Pa. 225; Walker’s Estate, 340 Pa. 13; Runco et vir v. Ostroski et al., 361 Pa. 593. However, in all of these cases except the latter, one of the tenants by the entireties attempted to destroy the estate without the consent of the other. We do not believe that this is the situation now before us. Here the conveyance was from one spouse to the other.

“An estate by the entirety may only be destroyed or terminated by the joint acts of husband and wife, and [227]*227not by the act of one of them”: 41 C. J. S. 607; Gallagher Estate, 352 Pa. 476, 478.

The question to be determined is whether the conveyance of 1916 by the wife to her husband, without his joinder, was their joint act or the act of the wife alone.

Some of the earlier Pennsylvania cases held that such conveyances by one spouse to the other, without the joinder of the spouse to whom the deed was made, were invalid. For example, in Hetzel v. Lincoln, 216 Pa. 60 (1906), the court found that a conveyance which a husband had made to his wife of an undivided half interest in the land was invalid. .More recently two cases in the lower courts arrived at the same conclusion. In Comito’s Estate, 13 D. & C. 302 (1929), the court declared the invalidity of a deed by a husband to his wife of his undivided one-half interest in the land held by them as tenants by the entireties. Likewise in Nogi v. Cawley, 48 York 122 (1933), the court found that a conveyance by a wife directly to her husband of all right, title and interest in the land which they held by the entireties ■was invalid.

In 1949, however, the Supreme Court, in Runco et vir v. Ostroski et al., 361 Pa. 593, although agreeing that one spouse could not destroy the incidents , of a tenancy without the assent of the other, held that where the husband without the joinder of his wife conveyed to her his interest in the property that the payment of consideration, delivery and recording of the deed constituted such joint action and mutual assent as were required to destroy the estate by the entireties, and that the formal joinder of the wife in conveying to herself would be totally unnecessary. Although not specifically overruling the decisions in the earlier cases, the Supreme Court in the Runco ease said, page 595:

[228]*228“Our cases show that the rigidity of the common law concept of tenancy by the entireties has yielded to the demands of modern life.”

There can be no doubt that Arthur J. Walker, plaintiff, accepted the deed made by his wife to him in 1916.

“The signing, sealing, acknowledging and recording of a deed constitute prima facie evidence of its delivery. . . .”: Chambley et al. v. Rumbaugh et al., 333 Pa. 319-20.

“The execution, acknowledgment, and delivery of a deed to the grantee raise the presumption of an acceptance of the instrument by him”: 26 C. J. S. 597, §186.

“So, the acceptance by a grantee of a deed which has been executed for his benefit may be presumed”: 26 C. J. S. 597.

In Stewart v. Cummings, Admr., 109 Pa. Superior Ct. 57, 62, the court said:

“ ‘Also, where a deed has been recorded, and the grantee has conveyed land as owner under the deed, with the concurrence of the grantor, this amounts to a delivery, though the deed was made without the knowledge of the grantee and was never actually delivered to him’.” (Italics supplied.)

In the case now before us the acceptance of his wife’s deed in 1916 by Arthur J. Walker, plaintiff, and his assent to the same, is manifest because in 1939 he conveyed the same premises to his wife and said in his deed “the object of this deed is for Arthur J. Walker to convey half the undivided interest in the above described lot to Mattie J. Walker, his wife (a joint deed).”

Certainly then there can be no doubt but that plaintiff was aware of his wife’s conveyance to him in 1916 and assented to it. We believe that this brings the situation before us squarely within the rule announced by the Supreme Court in the Runco case.

[229]*229It may be objected, however, that in the Runco case the husband conveyed “all his interest” and in the present case Mrs. Walker conveyed “all that undivided one-half interest”. It is true that her interest was “per tout et non per my”: Madden v. Gosztonyi Savings and Trust Co., 331 Pa. 476, and that since the wife did not own a one-half share but only an interest in the whole she could not convey a one-half interest: Zipperlein Estate, 367 Pa. 622. However, Mrs. Walker’s deed in 1916 contained the following:

“The object of this deed is for Mrs. Mattie J. Walker to convey her undivided interest in the above described lot to Arthur J. Walker, her husband.”

Obviously her intent was to convey all the interest which she owned, and the intention of the parties is “. . . the ultimate guide by which all deeds must be interpreted”: Maxwell et al. v. Saylor, 359 Pa. 94, 96.

“One of the most important rules in the construction of deeds, is so to construe them, that no part shall be rejected”: Wager v. Wager, 1 S. & R. 374-375.

In Jamison v.

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Related

Isherwood v. Springs-First National Bank
74 A.2d 89 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
Zipperlein Estate
80 A.2d 817 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1951)
Gallagher Estate
43 A.2d 132 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1945)
Berhalter v. Berhalter
173 A. 172 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1934)
Walker's Estate
16 A.2d 28 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1940)
Madden v. Glosztonyi Savings & Trust Co.
200 A. 624 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1938)
Maxwell v. Saylor
58 A.2d 355 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1948)
Runco Et Vir v. Ostroski
65 A.2d 399 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1949)
Chambley v. Rumbaugh
5 A.2d 171 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1939)
Rinios v. Tritsch
69 A.2d 120 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1949)
Stewart v. Cummings
165 A. 544 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1933)
Hetzel v. Lincoln
64 A. 866 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1906)
Beihl v. Martin
84 A. 953 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1912)
Blease v. Anderson
88 A. 365 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1913)
Jamison v. Jamison
3 Whart. 456 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1838)

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Bluebook (online)
85 Pa. D. & C. 225, 1953 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walker-v-colvin-pactcomplcambri-1953.