Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. Boice

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. Boice, 165 Pa. 27 (Pa. 1894)
30 A. 502; 1894 Pa. LEXIS 921
Dean, Fell, Green, Mitchell, Williams

Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. Boice

Opinion of the Court

Per Curiam,

The difficulty with the case of the defendants is that Priscilla Boice, under whose will they claim title, had no estate whatever in the land in question, either legal or equitable, which it was possible for her to pass by' any devise she could make. The estate absolutely ceased with her life. No title by election could be acquired under her will against an intervening purchaser without notice, and the authorities upon that subject are not applicable to the contention. She had no title to transmit, and the land vested in her heirs at her death by virtue of the original deed from John" McMichael to her trustee. However the acts of her children in accepting the legacies given them by her will might have affected them, there was no offer to prove any notice of those acts to the plaintiff, and as to it they were nugatory.

Judgment affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
Mansfield Coal & Coke Co. v. Parker L. Boice
Status
Published
Syllabus
Will—Election—Title—Notice. A person who acquires title to land by the election of its real owners to take under a will which makes other provision for them, and which assumes to devise the land to such person, although testator has no interest in it, cannot assert title to the land against a purchaser for value from the record owners without notice, actual or constructive, of the title by virtue of the election.