Wettach v. Horn
Wettach v. Horn
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiffs in this suit brought an action of ejectment to recover a tract of land situate in West Bethlehem township, Washington county, Pa., containing 106 acres. Their contention was that the land they sought to recover possession of was their property which they alleged the defendants had no just claim or title to. A jury was called and qualified on January 23, 1901, which on January 25, 1901, rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs for the land described in the writ, subject, however, to the questions of law reserved. The questions reserved were argued before Judges McIlvaine and Taylob ' who on May 10,1901, entered a judgment in favor of the defendants on the questions of law reserved non obstante veredicto. The conclusion of the court was that the plaintiffs had no right or title to the land they sought to recover possession of, and that the testator evidently intended to limit his bequests to the plaintiffs who were the heirs at law of his brother Thomas and sister Elizabeth to $200, and then after giving his executor, Bernard C. Jackman, $200, he provides that “all the rest and residue of my estate I bequeath to Margaret Ann, .natural daughter of my deceased sister Jane, intermarried with Jesse Nichols and her heirs.” Giving to the words “her heirs ” the same meaning that the testator gave them in the previous bequests, we have a bequest to Margaret Ann Nichols and her children, the words “ her heirs ” being words of purchase and not words of limitation.
We need not add anything to what has been so well said by
Reference
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- Will—Conclusiveness of probate—Ejectment—Acts of April 22, 1856, P. L. 533, and June 25, 1895, P. L. 805. Where an action of ejectment is brought more than three years after the probate of a will, no question which the register of wills had jurisdiction to pass upon when he entered the decree of probate, can be inquired into in the trial of the ejectment. Will—Devise—Lapsing of devise—Illegitimates—Acts of April 8, 1833, P.L. 250, May 6, 1844, P. L. 565, and July 12, 1897, P. L. 256. Where a testator by a will probated prior to the passage of the Act of July 12, 1897, P. L. 256, devises land to an illegitimate and her heirs, and the devisee who was a natural child of a sister of the testator dies before the testator, the devise lapses; but if the other provisions of the will and the circumstances surrounding its execution show that the testator used the words “her heirs ” in the sense of “children,” the children of the devisee will be entitled to the land.