Pennsylvania § 6117 Rule in Shelley's case and doctrine of worthier title

Pennsylvania Statutes

§ 6117 — Rule in Shelley's case and doctrine of worthier title

Pennsylvania § 6117

Title 20DECEDENTS, ESTATES AND FIDUCIARIES

Ch. 61ESTATES

This text of Pennsylvania § 6117 (Rule in Shelley's case and doctrine of worthier title) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

20 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 6117 (2026).

Text

(a)Rule in Shelley's case.--The rule in Shelley's case and its corollaries shall not be applied, and a conveyance directly or in trust which shall express an intent to create an estate for life with remainder to the life tenant's heirs or the heirs of his body or his issue or his next of kin or persons described by words of similar import, shall not operate to give such life tenant an estate in fee in real estate or an absolute estate in personalty.

(b)Doctrine of worthier title.--The doctrine of worthier title shall not be applied as a rule of law or as a rule of construction. Language in a governing instrument describing the beneficiaries of a disposition as the transferor's heirs, heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, relatives or family or language of similar import shall not cre

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(a) Rule in Shelley's case.--The rule in Shelley's case and its corollaries shall not be applied, and a conveyance directly or in trust which shall express an intent to create an estate for life with remainder to the life tenant's heirs or the heirs of his body or his issue or his next of kin or persons described by words of similar import, shall not operate to give such life tenant an estate in fee in real estate or an absolute estate in personalty.

(b) Doctrine of worthier title.--The doctrine of worthier title shall not be applied as a rule of law or as a rule of construction. Language in a governing instrument describing the beneficiaries of a disposition as the transferor's heirs, heirs at law, next of kin, distributees, relatives or family or language of similar import shall not create or presumptively create a reversionary interest in the transferor.