9 Pa. Super. 433 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1899
Opinion by
This was an action to recover arrears of ground rent reserved in a deed from Alexander Osbourn to Patrick McCreanor executed on June 22, 1853. By deed executed August 20, 1878, and duly recorded, William and Amelia Groeff, who then owned the land, convej'-ed the same to Jacob Echert. The deed contained these clauses : “ Subject to the payment of an annual ground rent of thirty dollars, payable on the first days of April and October in every year forever. . . . To have and to hold
The portion of section 7 of the act material here is as follows : “ That in all cases where no payment, claim or demand shall have been made on account of, or for any ground rent, annuity or other charge upon real estate for twenty-one years, or no declaration or acknowledgment of the existence thereof shall have been made within that period by the owner of the premises, subject to such ground rent, annuity, or charge, a release or extinguishment thereof shall be presumed, and such ground rent, annuity or charge shall thereafter be irrecoverable.”
As its title indicates, this law was enacted “ to amend certain defects of the law for the more just and safe transmission, and secure enjoyment of real and personal estate.” Prior to its passage there was no statute or limitations as to ground rents —St. Mary’s Church v. Miles, 1 Wh. 229 — and while a presumption of payment of arrears might arise from lapse of time without claim or demand being made, yet, as this was a presumption of fact merely and was rebuttable, it was inadequate to prevent the grievances which were pointed out by Mr. Price in his work on Limitations and Liens, p. 265, whose remarks were quoted by Justice Read in Korn v. Brown, 64 Pa. 55. When, as is admitted in this case, no payment claim or demand has been made on account of, or for, a ground rent for a period of twenty-one years, the natural presumption is very strong that it has been released or extinguished in some legitimate way. This might happen, and doubtless has happened in very many instances, without any written evidence of the fact being-preserved, when the ground rent deed provided, as this did, that upon payment of a certain sum, and all arrearages up to the time of payment, “then the same shall forever thereafter cease and be extinguished, and the covenant for payment thereof shall become void.” The act of 1855 gives legal recognition
In Pennsylvania an acknowledgment, to take a personal action out of the statute, must be made to the plaintiff or his agent: McKinney v. Snyder, 78 Pa. 497; Wesner v. Stein, 97 Pa. 322; Spangler v. Spangler, 122 Pa. 358; or, at least, be intended to inure to his benefit. It must be self-sustaining; several insufficient acknowledgments made at different times will not constitute a sufficient one: Patterson v. Neuer, 165 Pa. 66; Simrell v. Miller, 169 Pa. 326. There need not be a promise, in terms, to pay, but if there be none there must be a clear and unambiguous recognition of an existing debt, and so distinct as to preclude hesitation as to the debtor’s meaning: Hostetter v. Hollinger, 117 Pa. 606; Palmer v. Gillespie, 9 W. N. C. 535,
Judgment affirmed.