241 Pa. 198 | Pa. | 1913
Opinion by
This áppeal involves the construction to be placed upon and the effect to be given to a conveyance to man and wife wherein it is expressly provided, “It is understood and agreed that there is hereby conveyed an undivided ten-fifteenths part to the said William Anderson and an undivided two-fifteenths part to the said Rhoda A. Anderson, so that Rhoda A. Anderson, being already the owner of an undivided three-fifteenths part......,
In Merritt v. Whitlock, 200 Pa. 50, after referring to our cases supporting the common law rule that a conveyance to husband and wife is presumed to create an estate by entireties, and to the Married Women’s Property Acts, Mr. Justice Mitchell states, (p. 55): “It may be considered as still an open question whether they (man and wife) may not, now, since the acts referred to, take as well as hold in common, if that be the actual intent, notwithstanding the legal presumption to the contrary”; (Also see, Alles v. Lyon, 216 Pa. 604; Hetzell v. Lincoln, 216 Pa. 60.) In Young’s Est., 166 Pa. 645, where it was held that an assignment of a mortgage to a man and wife, (which in the grant transferred the whole to the assignees but in a “sort of habendum clause” provided that they should “hold in equal moieties or one-half parts as tenants in common; that is to say, one full equal moiety or half part to the said......(husband) his heirs, executors, and assigns, and the remaining one full equal moiety or half part to the said......(wife) her heirs, executors, administrators and assigns),” would give “one-half of the mortgage debt to each in severalty,” after referring to the general rule governing conveyances to husband and wife, Mr. Justice Williams states, (p. 649) : “But it by no means follows that a grantor cannot convey to them as individuals. Nobody ever doubted that the husband was competent to take in severalty, and under recent legislation the competency of the wife to take and hold real estate as her own is just as clear as that of the husband”; then referring to Bramberry’s Est., 156 Pa. 628, he states
While we have said more than once that the Married Women’s Property Acts do not abolish or affect estates by entireties (Meyer’s Est., 232 Pa. 89; Beihl v. Martin, 236 Pa. 519) where the grant expressly or in effect creates such an estate, yet at no time since the recent legislation conferring full competency upon married women to take and hold real estate as their individual
The assignments of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.