156 Pa. 8 | Pa. | 1893
Orinion by
We are clearly of opinion that this case was correctly decided by the master and learned court below. The real estate which is the subject of the present contention was never impressed with any trust on the face of the title. It is not a case in which a trustee has purchased the land which was the subject of the trust, nor is it the case of a trustee acquiring title in himself to the trust estate by any act of purchase or release from the cestui que trust. Nor yet is it a case where a trust fund was used by the trustee in the purchase of the entire title to the land in question. In its largest and best aspect for the plaintiff, it is a contention which arises upon a pure resulting trust, growing exclusively out of the use by a trustee of a portion of a trust fund, in paying for the tract of land in dispute, which was purchased by the trustee from strangers to the trust, for a consideration nearly three times as large as the amount of the trust money which was used in paying the price of the land. The title to the land purchased was necessarily taken in the name of the purchaser, Peter Supplee, Jr., who paid or secured all the remainder of the purchase money by other means than by the use of any of the trust money in his hands. Peter Supplee, Jr., the trustee of the Way children and their father, purchased the land in question on March 9,1880, for $14,983.59, and, although he used $6,700 of the trust fund in paying for the land, by subsequent payments on account of the trust fund he reduced the amount for which he is accountable as trustee to $4,502.23, as appears by the settlement of his account as trustee confirmed by the orphan’s court on Sept. 8, 1890.
The title of the defendant originated in a judgment confessed by Peter Supplee, Jr., in favor of Robert Neely to secure a loan of $4,500 made by Neely to Supplee on February 1,1884. This judgment was duly assigned to James S. Neely, who was Robert Neely’s son, and was regularly revived so as to continue the lien until, and after, the sale of the land by the assignee of Peter Supplee, Jr. At the time of the loan of the money by Robert Neely to Supplee the record showed that the title to the land in fee simple was in Supplee, and he was, and had been, in full possession of the land as the owner thereof, from the time of his purchase of the title. There is not the least pretence, anywhere on this record, by any testimony or any
In the light of the facts as above stated and as found by the master, it is manifest that the plaintiff’s claim is founded only upon a resulting trust pure and simple. The master and the court below found that there was such a trust to the amount of the trust money used in the purchase of the land, but they also found that the claim of title based upon the trust was barred by the sixth section of the act of 1856. They held that the act was a statute of repose and could be used without being pleaded specially, and also that the minority of the plaintiff’s wards was not a protected disability. Upon both points the authorities are clearly with the defendant. The master found
The sixth section of the act of 1856 expressly provides, “ that no right of entry shall accrue, or action be maintained, .... to enforce any implied or resulting trust as to realty but within five years after such contract was made or such equity or trust accrued.” The present case comes precisely within the operation of this act, and there could not be a more forcible illustration of the wisdom and justice of the law than is afforded by the undisputed facts of this very case. By the sheer neglect of the plaintiff to assert her title when she should have done so, an entirely innocent person was induced to lend $4,500 upon the faith of an apparently perfectly good title as it stood on the record, and it would be rank injustice to allow her to assert it now, after eleven years delay, and six years after a beneficent and highly just law has closed upon her claim. Said Thompson, J., in Clark v. Trindle, 52 Pa. on page 495: “ The words, ‘ with right of entry ’ at the end of the clause I esteem as material to be considered in construing it. The expression evidently means, I think, that if there be neither entry nor possession taken by the party, in whose favor the trust results, within five years after it accrues, and no acknowledgment in writing, the trust can not thereafter be asserted in law against the trustee. It means this or nothing, and we may not urge the latter, if the words are susceptible of a definite meaning.”
In the case of Cochran v. Young, 104 Pa. 333, this subject was carefully and fully considered, and the quality of the act of 1856, as affecting the title to land, and not merely the remedy, was authoritatively announced. Mr. Justice Clark, in stating several conclusions arising under the seventh section but relating to the whole act, said : “ It is not to be regarded simply as a statute of limitations, it is a provision for the greater certainty of title. Statutes of limitations affect the remedy only, but this section of the act of 1856, as we have said in Warfield v. Fox, 3 P. F. S. 382; Hegarty’s Ap., 25 P. F. S. 517, and McCort’s Ap., 2 Out. 33, lays down a rule of evidence which, after the lapse of five years without caveat or action at law duly pursued, makes that conclusive which before was prima facie only; it therefore affects the title to the land and not merely the remedy for its recovery. . . . These are the deliberate conclusions of this court after a careful study of this statute, and we are unwilling to modify or change them. Individual cases of special hardship may, and doubtless will, occur, which, at first blush, may appear to bring in question the wisdom of these rulings, but we believe this construction to be in accord with the purpose and design of the statute.”
Although this case arose under the seventh section of the act which protects titles to real estate under wills after five
The next case cited is one arising under the sixth section: Christy v. Sill, 95 Pa. 380. It was a trust arising from an alleged fraud, which was found by the jury, but the action was brought more than five years after the trust arose. Mr. Justice PAXSON delivering the opinion of this court, said: “ The sixth section of the act of 1856 is not, strictly speaking, an act of limitation but rather of repose. So much was said by the present Chief Justice in Douglass v. Lucas, 13 P. F. Smith, at page 12. It is ‘An act for the greater certainty of title and more secure enjoyment of real estate,’ the preamble of which declares its object to be that, ‘ the people should, acquire, hold and improve their homesteads and estates in the confidence that they will not be lost, by secret and unknown claims, or by fraud and perjury. . . . We have here an ejectment brought in 1875 for a valuable property, and a recovery upon the ground of a fraud committed in 1863 by the purchaser at a sheriff’s sale. . . . There must be some point of time when a purchaser of real estate at a judicial sale shall not have his title cut up by the roots by mere parol evidence of what took place at such sale; or by a secret trust disentombed after the lapse of years, and set up by the uncertain recollection of witnesses as to remote transactions. The act of 1856 was evidently intended to prevent titles being disturbed in this manner. It is a highly beneficial statute, and ought to be liberally construed. ... We are of opinion that the defendants are protected by the act of 1856.”
Further citations are unnecessary. Although that was a case of fraud and it was vigorously contended that the title was absolutely avoided, yet we held, that the title by force of the fraud must be set up within the five years after it arose, or it must fail under the statute. By much greater force must the title alleged in the present case, being a resulting trust merely, fail after eleven years delay.
It was also contended here and in the court below, that the plaintiff’s wards being minors, the statute cannot be used against them until five years after attaining their majority. But this ground is entirely untenable under repeated decisions of this court. The act contains no exception in favor of persons under
This case has been followed ever since, and is the undoubted law of the commonwealth to-day: See Pratt v. Eby, 67 Pa. 396; Folmar’s Appeal, 68 Pa. 482; Hunt v. Wall, 75 Pa. 413; Hollinshead’s Appeal, 103 Pa. 158; Cochran v. Young, 104 Pa. 333.
The contention that the possession of the trustee affected by such a trust is the possession of the cestui que trust, aud therefore notice to all, of the title under the trust, is hardly worth mention, as such a doctrine would entirely defeat the operation of the act in all cases.
The decree of the court below is affirmed, and the bill is dismissed at the cost of the plaintiff.