Asam v. Asam
Asam v. Asam
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This appeal is from a decree sustaining a demurrer to a bill filed by plaintiff asking that the defendant be adjudged trustee with respect to a certain piece of real estate the legal title to which is in her name; that she be enjoined from selling or encumbering the same, and that she be directed to execute and deliver to plaintiff a deed therefor. Assuming, as we must for present purposes, that the facts are as stated in the bill, we have this situation: The plaintiff in March, 1903, then a married man, but living apart from his wife, purchased the real estate with his own money; and with a view to prevent his wife’s right of dower attaching thereto, in order that property might be easily alienable should the exigencies of his business require it, took title thereto in the name of the defendant, his unmarried sister. The plaintiff ever since the purchase has been in the occupancy of the property, and since the purchase he has been divorced from his wife. His demand upon the sister for a conveyance to himself has been refused, and the present bill was filed to enforce the demand. A demurrer was filed denying plaintiff’s right to the relief prayed for on the ground that the bill does not set forth any instrument in writing creating a trust or confidence in the land, and that the trust, if any there was, is, therefore, void because of the Act of April 22, 1856, P. L. 532; and, second, that plaintiff does not come into court with clean hands, since “he alleges in his bill that the conveyance to the defendant was made in order that he might defraud his wife of her rights.”
The insufficiency of the first-mentioned circumstance to defeat the plaintiff’s right is easily apparent. The claim asserted does not rest on any parol promise, but on
Reference
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- Trusts — Resulting trust — Bill in equity — Demurrer—Fraud. 1. Where one purchases real estate with his own money and the deed is taken in the name of another, a trust results by presumption or implication of law, and without any agreement, to him who advances the money. 2. The mere fact that a married man places his real estate in the name of a third person, so that the rights of his wife do not attach thereto, does not give rise to an implication of fraud. ' 3. Where a married man placed the title to property purchased by him in the name of his sister, the defendant, for the purpose of preventing the attachment of his wife’s rights of dower, but there is no evidence indicating that any actual fraud was intended or committed, a bill in equity will lie to enforce a conveyance from the sister; it is error to sustain a demurrer to such bill, either on the ground that there was no writing to establish the trust or because of fraud on the part of the plaintiff.