4 Pa. 359 | Pa. | 1846
By the order of the Orphans’ Court of Bucks county, to sell the lands of the minor children of James Craven, deceased, “for‘their maintenance and education, and the guardian having sold the land, and upon confirmation of the sale by the court, having made a deed to the purchaser and received the purchase money, the estate of the minors in the land w'as divested. In point of fact the land was converted into money.. The judicial alchymy can transform it into land. The guardian was bound to deal with it as money; and if the necessities of his ward did not require its immediate use, it was his duty to put it out on interest until the exigencies of the sale occurred. Before the Orphans’ Court grant an order of sale to an executor, administrator, or guardian, for the purpose of payment of debts of a decedent, or maintenance and education of minor children as the case may be, a bond must be filed with surety to be approved by the court, conditioned for the faithful appropriation of the proceeds, according to their respective duties. The duty of the guardian in this case was to apply the proceeds of the share of Elizabeth to her maintenance and education during her minority; and when she arrived at the age of twenty-one years, to pay her the balance, if any remained. But she intermarried with Jesse Cornell, the plaintiff below, during her minority. By that marriage, the guardianship of Allen Dyer was terminated, and her husband became her legal guardian, entitled to the care and custody of her person, and to her personal estate as husband, and to the posses
But even admitting that the money in this case bore the impress of real estate, and the inheritable qualities peculiar to lands and houses, in analogy to the case of Lloyd v. Hart; for how many generations or descents shall it wear that complexion ? It must cease, as it mingles with other moneys of the distributee, otherwise uncertainty, confusion and litigation, will indelibly mark its character. This court is of opinion that it cannot be carried further than the first descent in any case. Here the first descent was to the child of Elizabeth, and upon its decease, the fund would assume its natural character, and from her wrould go to the father, Jesse Cornell, by the third section of the act of 8th April, 1833, relating to the descent and distribution of intestate’s estates ; the provision of the act of 1794, as to personal estate, which descended or came ex parte materna, being omitted in the revised act, and the father being entitled, no matter from whence derived.
Jesse Cornell, the husband of Elizabeth, and the father of her de
Judgment affirmed.