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104 Pa. 593

Scott v. Lauman

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided November 8, 1883

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1883-11-08

2 of Allegheny county^: Of .October and November Term 1883, No. 218. Feigned issue, wherein George K. Lauman, administrator d. b. n. c. t. a. of William Scott, deceased, was plaintiff, and Andrew Scott was defendant, to determine whether the right to a certain sum of $4,000 passed to the defendant by the following indorsed certificate of deposit. No. 2,432.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1883-11-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently May 1976

10 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1The opinion of the court was filed January 7th 1884.

Per Curiam.

¶2— To constitute a valid gift, there must be a delivery of the property to the donee, or to some person for his use. A gift is a contract executed. The act of execution is the delivery of possession. Without delivery, it is only a contract to give, not binding for want of consideration: Campbell’s Estate, 7 Barr 100; Withers v. Weaver, 10 Id. 391; Kidder v. Kidder, 9 Casey 268; Trough’s Estate, 25 P. F. S. 115; Zimmerman v. Streeper, Id. 147.

¶3In the.present case there was no delivery to the donee, nor to any person for his use. The donee placed in the hands of his own attorney the certificate of deposit, and the order to pay a part of the sum therein specified to the donee, ile did not instruct his attorney to deliver it to the donee. The latter had no knowledge of any act of the donor relating to the intended gift. Without delivery the whole evidence was insufficient to support the paper as an executed contract.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

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