51 Pa. 196 | Pa. | 1866
The opinion of the court was delivered, by
The principles which rule this case were settled in Martin v. McCord, 5 Watts 493 ; School Directors v. Dunkleberger, 6 Barr 29 ; and Beaver v. Filson, 8 Id. 327: and recognised in Morrison v. Baire, 2 W. & S. 81; Kirk v. King, 3 Barr 436 ; Wright v. Linn, 9 Id. 433 ; McKissick v. Pickle, 4 Harris 140 ; and Price v. Maxwell, 4 Casey 23.
When an owner of ground devotes it to a charity, public in its nature, and permits those to whom he commits control to improve it for the object of the dedication, giving to it his consent and countenance, and encouraging his neighbours and others interested in the use to expend their money and labour in its improvement, and to enter in good faith upon its enjoyment, for the purposes intended, the case is not within the Statute of Frauds. Though the transaction be by parol, and the legal title was not conveyed, he would be held in equity as a trustee of the title for the subscribers, or those participating in the erection of the building— and they in turn are regarded as trustees of the charity. Equity supports the estate for them, and will control it for the use of the beneficiaries.
But there is a single feature — the want of defined boundaries at the time of dedication — which it is argued distinguishes this case from Martin v. McCord, and other decided cases. If it were a private purchase and therefore within the Statute of Frauds, this would be a conclusive fact; for uncertainty in the subject of the sale, unquestionably disables a chancellor from administering
In Pennsylvania, equity, disregarding the uncertainty of the object of a charity, will not suffer it to fail, when it can be made certain through a discretionary power vested in those who are to exercise the application of the grantor’s bounty: Beaver v. Filson, 8 Barr 335. This doctrine was recognised in Whitman v. Lex, 17 S. & R. 88; and was followed by McGuire v. Aaron, 1 Penn. Rep. 49; Pickering v. Shotwell, 10 Barr 23; and other cases. This subject was elaborately discussed by Baldwin, J., in Magill v. Brown, Bright. Rep. 346 note. Though the rule as to the objects cannot be applied to the subject, yet the same principle which will support a charity wholly uncertain in the specific object, when a reasonable means of ascertaining it can be found in those who are to dispense it, should incline us to support it when the subject has been rendered reasonably certain by the donor himself. The extent to which equity will reach in the support of a charity may be seen in some of the examples. Thus it has sustained a devise to a Catholic priest that should succeed to the devisor and his successors; for this purpose treating it as vesting in the congregation : McGuire v. Aaron; the bequest of a fund to be applied under the direction of the monthly meeting of Friends of Philadelphia for the northern district, for the distribution of good books among poor people in the back part of Pennsylvania: Pickering v. Shotwell; a parol gift to the subscribers and also to the contributors who build a school-house for the use of the neighbourhood: Martin v. McCord ; School Directors v. Dunkleberg ; a parol gift to the inhabitants of a town and its neighbourhood for the erection of a house of worship : Beaver v. Filson. The doctrine that charities are to be supported when they reasonably can be, involves a principle which covers this case. There is nothing
The judgment is affirmed.