Aylesworth v. Crocker
Aylesworth v. Crocker
Opinion of the Court
Several objections to this bill for partition are raised on demurrer. One objection is that the bill is multifarious.
Its primary, object is a division of real estate held by most of the parties as devisees under the will of Eli Aylesworth, and in aid of this object it seeks to free the land from the liability of a charge under a bond of the testator to pay Susan H. Seamans seventy-five dollars a month during her natural life by making her and the executors of the will parties to this bill, and asking the court to award a gross sum or to assign real estate to her in discharge of said bond, or to determine what part of the real estate shall be subject to charge for such payments to the exclusion of the rest. It then prays for a distribution of the personal estate in the hands of the executors.
“Partition, either at law or in equity, may be made of any lands . . . between the person or persons who hold the fee of any share or shares thereof, and the person or persons who hold or are or may be entitled to any share or shares thereof, for life or in reversion or remainder, and whether such remainder be vested or contingent, and whether it be to persons in being and ascertained or to persons not in being and to be ascertained thereafter, or subject to be opened to let in those afterwards to come into being or having other interests whatsoever vested or contingent therein : Provided, that all persons in being at the time of the commencement of the suit for partition, interested in the estate, *439 be made parties to the proceedings,. and their title or interest fully shown upon the record by the pleadings ; and provided also, that before final judgment or decree for partition or sale in any such case the court shall appoint some discreet person to represent the interest of persons, if any, not then in being.’’
This statute was passed in February, 1861, Pub. Laws, cap. 360, and its evident purpose is to allow full partition with clear title, while, at the same time, all interests are to be represented, or shown to the court that they may be duly protected. It is very broad in its terms, covering interests both vested and contingent, those ascertained and to be ascertained, and persons living and those who may be born. In Lyman, Pet'r, 11 R. I. 157, the rule of this statute in partition was extended to a case of sale of trust property by a trustee. The principle of the two classes of cases was recognized to be analogous, and the rule, of the statute was followed in order to bind future contingent interests. The children, at least, have contingent interests, except as to those shares in which the entail has been barred'. As to the other shares, therefore, the children are proper parties under the statute.
In Lyman, Pet'r, Judge Potter implied a distinction between 'cases of sale and partition by metes and bounds. He said : “We can easily understand why in partition and many other cases a court might hold a share to be well represented *440 by the first tenant in tail or person holding the first estate, while the same reasons would not apply where the object was a sale of the property, or a total change of its nature.”
We think, however, that the terms of section 20 are applicable to this case, and hence that the wives and husbands are proper parties to the suit.
It follows that the demurrer is sustained on the grounds of multifariousness and of bringing in as parties devisees in tail where the entail has been barred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Albert W. Aylesworth Et Al. vs. George U. Crocker Et Al.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published