A Selection of Authorities on Descent, Wills, and Administration (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 edition. Excerpt: ...a contract executory, the estate goes from the devisee, and the devise is revoked by the contract of sale. So again, in Williams v. Owens, 2 Ves. Jr. 601, the master of rolls observed, that if a man articles for the sale of an estate that he has devised, it is, without doubt, a revocation in equity, though it is not at law, because a court of law cannot look at the articles with a view to a speciflc performance. In Cotter v. Layer, 2 P. Wms. 623, Lord King held, that though a covenant or articles to sell or settle the land devised, do not at law revoke a will, yet if entered into for a valuable consideration, they amount in equity to a conveyance and a revocation. He laid down the same rule in Rider v. Wager, 2 P. Wms. 332; and Lord Loughborough. in Brydges v. Duchess of Chandos, admitted the force and authority of these two cases. So, again, in the case of Mayer v. Gowland, Dickens, 563, the testator devised a certain farm, and then entered into a contract with the defendant to sell it to him for 1,500 pounds. It was insisted by the residuary legatees, that the testator meant, by the contract, to turn the land into personalty, and that as such they were entitled to it. In this opinion, Lord Thurlow concurred, and held that the agreement ought to be carried into execution, and the money arising from the sale to be considered as personal estate. These cases are entirely suflicient to show l the settlement of the rule that a valid contract, for the sale of lands devised, is as much a revocation of the will in equity as a legal conveyance of them would be at law. The estate, from the time of the contract, is considered as the real estate of the vendee. We may, therefore, safely conclude, that, as to the lands described in the contracts of...