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218 Pa. 186

Scott v. Murray

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided May 13, 1907

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1907-05-13

Appeal, No. 26, Oct. T., 1907, by plaintiff, from judgment of C. P. No. 1, Allegheny Co., Sept. Term, 1906, No. 797, for defendant on case stated in suit of W. L. Scott and C. L. Saxton v. R. J.… Held: that Mrs. McWhinney took only a life estate, and consequently entered judgment for defendant. Error assigned was the judgment of the court.

Relies on Redding v. Rice · Cooper v. Pogue

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed · Decided 1907-05-13

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently April 1967

17 state decisions

601907191019201930194019501960decided

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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Per Curiam,

¶1Testator devised all his estate, real, personal and mixed to his wife “ and her heirs and assigns forever.” This was a fee simple in the very language of the books, and if he had stopped here there could have been no question. But he added, “so long as she remains my widow.” These words, however, do not indicate any intention to cut down the quantum of estate granted, which is never done except in obedience to a clear intent. No such intent is expressed here. On the contrary, the words are equivalent to saying “provided she remains my widow,” and instead of cutting down the estate, merely attached a condition which made it defeasible in toto on a'breach. The widow not having remarried died seized in fee.

¶2The learned court below thought the case governed by Cooper v. Pogue, 92 Pa. 254. But the operative language of the will there was “ to my wife, so long as she remains my widow, I give the income of the home farm .... also the Mansion House,” etc. There was no primary gift of the fee as in the present case, but a gift of income and profits, expressly limited to widowhood, and the court held that the devise of the Mansion House, etc., was limited to the same estate. The present case is more analogous to Redding v. Rice, 171 Pa. 301, and is a stronger case for a fee.

¶3Judgment reversed and judgment directed to be entered for plaintiff.

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