18 Pa. 105 | Pa. | 1851
The opinion of the Court was delivered, by
That the implied direction to sell the land, charged by implication, for the payment of the unequal legacies bequeathed to the testator’s children, worked an equitable conversion into money, is conceded by the litigants. An immediate and inevitable effect of this direction was to break the descent by vesting the estate in the trustees, clothed with the power to sell, and to confer on the legatees, not an interest in the land, but simply a right to the proceeds of sale, in the proportions designated by the will. They take, by force of the bequest, a mere chose in action; a claim strictly of a personal character. This principle has been rendered so familiar by repeated decisions in onr own courts, that it is unnecessary to cite particular adjudications to prove it. Recognising this rule, the plaintiff in error seeks to take advantage of the equally familiar doctrine, that actual conversion may be prevented at the option of those who are entitled to the fund pro
As, therefore, the evidence excluded would have been of no avail' if heard, the Court was right in rejecting it.
Judgment affirmed.