Weir v. Taylor

45 Pa. D. & C.2d 197, 1967 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 63
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Chester County
DecidedJuly 17, 1967
Docketno. 27
StatusPublished

This text of 45 Pa. D. & C.2d 197 (Weir v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Chester County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weir v. Taylor, 45 Pa. D. & C.2d 197, 1967 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 63 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1967).

Opinion

Kurtz, Jr., J.,

Berwin A. Taylor, Jr., and Flora F. Taylor, who was then his wife, were, prior to November 18, 1966, the owners of three distinct tracts of land in this county, one of which, containing five acres, 140 perches, was situate in West Whiteland Township, and the other two in Warwick Township. Title to the tract situate in West White-land Township was acquired through two deeds of conveyance, the first dated August 12, 1947, recorded in deed book D-23, at page 167, in which Benjamin J. Giordano and wife conveyed title thereto to Robert [198]*198J. McKeand and the said Berwin A. Taylor, Jr., as tenants in common, and the second, dated July 8, 1949, recorded in deed book E-24, at page 266, in which the said McKeand conveyed his undivided one-half interest therein to Flora F. Taylor. (Note: Although the above recitation pertaining to the conveyances involved does not appear in either the stipulation or amended stipulation filed of record in this case, we, through our own independent search of the records in the office of the recorder of deeds, have ascertained that title was obtained as indicated.) Title to the other two tracts was obtained by the said Taylors as tenants by the entireties through conveyances made in 1959 and 1962, respectively.

Campbell Weir entered a judgment against Flora F. Taylor only on June 8, 1964. The Taylors were divorced by decree of the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County entered September 23, 1964. On September 28, 1964, Flora F. Taylor executed and delivered a deed which purported to convey her interest in said tracts to trustees for the benefit of her children, one of whom was Berwin A. Taylor, Jr., who also received a life estate in that interest under its terms, and in that deed which was recorded in this county on October 2, 1964, in miscellaneous deed book 161 at page 494, it was recited that she and the said Berwin A. Taylor, Jr., had been divorced on September 23, 1964, by a decree of the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, indexed therein to February term 1964, no. 66. On September 26, 1966, Weir, without reviving the lien of his judgment, issued execution against the said Flora F. Taylor’s interest in all three tracts, joining the grantee-trustees named in her deed of trust including Berwin A. Taylor, Jr. as garnishees. At the sheriff’s sale held on November 18, 1966, Berwin A. Taylor, Jr. bid $17,000 for the interests then being sold, the interests [199]*199in all three tracts having been offered in one sale, and said property was struck down to him. He then paid $1,700, the down money required by the conditions of the sale. He has now presented a petition upon which the rule before us was issued, seeking to have that sale set aside. It asserts that the “sale was defective” because Weir’s judgment was obtained at a time when Flora F. Taylor was married to Berwin A. Taylor, Jr., and that for that reason “no lien . . . attached to her undivided interest in and to the premises in Warwick Township which were owned by the entireties”, and further, that the sheriff’s sale “conveyed nothing to the purchaser, your petitioner, and your petitioner has been unable to obtain an insured title as a purchaser of said premises”.

Weir filed an answer to the petition in which he admitted most of the factual allegations it contained but denied that the sale was defective and that it did not fulfill its function of selling the title of Flora F. Taylor in the premises. When the matter came on for hearing, Weir’s counsel said in open court that .it was being presented as if on a demurrer to the petition, a position in which he still persists, as evidenced by his memorandum in reply to the sheriff’s brief which he filed as recently as July-3, 1967. At the same time, counsel asked leave to join with petitioner’s counsel in a stipulation of fact which the court was to consider in arriving at a decision. Since that time, an amended stipulation has also been filed. We have found no authority in the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure permitting a demurrer to a petition of this kind. Indeed, we have difficulty in understanding the position of a party who seeks to demur and at the same time answer. However, at argument we agreed to accept the stipulation in lieu of testimony on the issues which were framed by the petition and answer. We must now direct our attention to the resolution of those issues.

[200]*200From the foregoing, we think it is clear that on June 8, 1964, the date upon which Weir obtained his judgment, he acquired a lien upon Flora F. Taylor’s undivided one-half interest in the West Whiteland Township property. Since nothing more than an undivided one-half interest in that property was ever conveyed to her, she could not acquire any greater or higher interest in it, and since that was the interest which was subject to the lien of Weir’s judgment, it was liable to an execution based upon it.

Her interest in the Warwick Township properties was as a tenant by the entireties at the time the judgment was obtained. Her interest remained such until the decree of divorce was entered on September 23, 1964. Regarding the effect of the divorce upon her title, the applicable statute, the Act of May 10, 1927, P. L. 884, sec. 1, as amended by the Act of May 17, 1949, P. L. 1394, sec. 1, 68 PS §501 which became effective September 1, 1949 (see Collins v. Wilkinson, 366 Pa. 108, 110 (1950)), provides, inter alia:

“Whenever any husband and wife, hereafter acquiring property as tenants by entireties, shall be divorced, they shall thereafter hold such property as tenants in common of equal one-half shares in value

However, section 3 of the original act, as amended by section 1 of the later one, 68 PS §503, contains this proviso:

“Provided, however, That no decree of divorce as aforesaid shall be effective to change the existing law relating to liens upon property held by tenants by the entireties, except a decree of divorce that is valid in this Commonwealth, and not until the said decree of divorce, or a certified copy thereof, shall be recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county where the property is situate, which decree shall be [201]*201indexed in the grantor’s index against each of the said tenants by the entireties”.

Thus, Flora F. Taylor became a tenant-in-common, seized of an undivided one-half interest in this property upon the date when the divorce decree was entered.

Was Weir’s judgment a lien upon Flora F. Taylor’s undivided one-half interest in that property at the time execution issued upon it or was a revival of the judgment by him after the divorce necessary before that result could be obtained?

The answer to this question turns on the nature and character of a tenancy by the entireties created after September 1, 1949. We will direct our attention to a consideration of the characteristics of such a tenancy.

Prior to the time when the Act of 1949 became effective, a tenant by the entireties remained such so long as both tenants continued in life or until they, by some positive act of relinquishment or conveyance, either relinquished their interest therein or conveyed their entire interest to another.

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Related

Collins v. Wilkinson
76 A.2d 649 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
Wirtz v. Phillips
251 F. Supp. 789 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1965)
Lefever v. Kline
143 A. 488 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1928)
Kline, Admrs. v. Kline
188 A. 119 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1936)
First National Bank v. Mount
1 A.2d 547 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1938)
Fleek v. Zillhaver
12 A. 420 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1887)
Beihl v. Martin
84 A. 953 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1912)

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Bluebook (online)
45 Pa. D. & C.2d 197, 1967 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weir-v-taylor-pactcomplcheste-1967.