Case Name: LINGSWEILER et al. v. HART et al.
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1896-11-13
Citations: 41 N.Y.S. 862
Docket Number: 
Parties: LINGSWEILER et al. v. HART et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: West's New York Supplement
Volume: 41
Pages: 862–873

Head Matter:
LINGSWEILER et al. v. HART et al.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.
November 13, 1896.)
1. Wills—Construction—Estate.
A devise in trust to pay the income to testator’s widow for life, and on her death to divide the estate equally between testator’s children, or the issue of any children who should die leaving issue, gives to each of the children of testator, living at his death, an estate alienable during the lifetime of the widow, but defeasible as to any child on bis death during the widow’s lifetime.
2. Vendor and Purchaser—Conveyance of Defeasible EstatbARioiits of
Vendors inter Se.
Devisees of an estate in remainder, defeasible as to any who should die during the lifetime of the life tenant, conveyed it with joint and several covenants that they were seised of an indefeasible estate of inheritance, and took from the purchaser, for part of the price, a mortgage bond which provided that, if the title of any of the devisees (grantors) should fail, the purchaser might make a reasonable payment to acquire such interest, and that the sum so paid should be a credit on the bond, and that the covenants of warranty should only remain in force for the residue. Held, that where one of the devisees died during the lifetime of the life tenant, and the purchaser acquired her share of the property from her children, to whom, by the terms of the will, it passed, her estate was not entitled to share in the amount due under the bond, since the consideration failed as to her. O’Brien, ,T., dissenting.
3. Same—Failure of Title of One of Several Vendors.
Where the owners of a defeasible estate convey it with a joint and several warranty, and take a bond for the price, stipulating that, if the share of any grantor should fail, the purchaser might acquire such share, and deduct the amount so Expended from the amount of the bond, and that the liability of the grantors on their covenants should remain in force only as to the residue, and the defeasance occurred as to one of the grantors, the other grantors are entitled to he subrogated to the rights of the purchaser as to so much of the amount expended by him and deducted from the bond in acquiring the defeated interest as should exceed the interest therein of the grantor whose estate was defeated. O’Brien, J., dissenting.
Appeal from special term, New York county.
Action by Charles Lingsweiler and others against George William Hart, as trustee, impleaded with others, to foreclose a mortgage. There was a judgment in favor of plaintiffs, and from portions thereof defendant George William Hart appeals. Affirmed.
Argued before VAN BRUNT, P. J., and WILLIAMS, PATTERSON, O’BRIEN, and INGRAHAM, JJ.
Alexander Thain, for appellant.
H. B. Closson, for respondent Loeb.
Arthur R. Robertson, for respondents Lingsweiler and others.

Opinion:
INGRAHAM, J.
I agree with Mr. Justice O'BRIEN that the interest of Mrs. Schoeneman in the real estate in question at the time of the conveyance was dependent upon the precedent life estate in her mother; that, by her death prior to her mother's, her interest ceased, and her children took a vested estate in remainder under the will;' and that this interest of Mrs. Schoeneman was alienable, though liable to be defeated by her death before the death of her mother, although I am of opinion that the remainder was contingent upon her surviving her mother, the intention of the testator clearly being to postpone the vesting of the estate until the death of the life tenant, for, by the will, the direction was that after the death of her mother the whole of said property, both real and personal, was to be divided and paid over equally among the testator's children then surviving, or the issue of any children if any should die leaving issue, such issue to take a parent's share. The estate granted, however, by either of the children of the testator during the lifetime of the mother, would be dependent upon such child's surviving her mother; and, in case the child died before the mother, no estate could pass under such a conveyance. Upon the death, therefore, of Mrs. Schoeneman, the undivided sixth interest in the estate vested in her children, subject to the life estate of her mother; and the defendant Loeb, upon the happening of that contingency, was the owner in fee of but five-sixths of the real property described in the conveyance, the other one-sixth being vested in the children of Mrs. Schoeneman. As no estate vested in Mrs. Schoeneman, no estate passed by her deed to Loeb. Had she survived her mother, the remainder would then have vested, and, under the covenant of warranty in the deed, an estate would then have passed to Loeb, conveying her undivided one-sixth of the property of the testator; but, such interest never having vested, no estate passed under the deed of the. one undivided one-sixth devised to her upon the death of her mother. It is quite apparent from a consideration of the deeds and the bond and mortgage that the parties to this transaction correctly appreciated the situation, understood the effect upon Loeb's title to the property of the death of one or more of the children of the testator before their mother, and that the deed and bond and mortgage were prepared with a view of protecting Loeb on the happening of such a contingency. The deed which was executed and finally accepted by Loeb contained a covenant whereby the parties of the first part (the grantors) did jointly and severally covenant and agree to and with the party of the second part, his heirs and assigns, that the said parties of the first part are lawfully seised in their own right of a good, absolute, and indefeasible estate of inheritance in fee simple, of and in all and singular the above granted and described premises, with a general covenant of warranty. There was a breach of this covenant of title at the time of the execution of the deed. Neither of the grantors had a good, absolute, and indefeasible estate of inheritance in fee simple in the property. They had, however, an interest in the property which, upon the death of their mother, would become such an estate as they had intended to convey; and, under the covenant of warranty, that estate would become vested in the grantee upon the death of the mother. This being the condition of the title, Loeb accepted the deed in question, paying a portion of the consideration for the property in cash, and giving back a bond which was to become due upon the death of the mother in whom the life interest was vested, secured by a mortgage upon the property conveyed. That bond ran to the children of the testator jointly. There is no express provision in the bond as to the respective interests of the obligees, and it would be assumed, therefore, that they were entitled to share equally. That, however, was a mere inference drawn from the absence of an express or implied provision of a contrary intention as between the obligees themselves; and it seems to me that the question to be determined is whether or not the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction show that such an intention existed as between the obligees.
It is quite immaterial to the obligor just what disposition the obligees should make as between themselves of the amount that was due under the bond; and we have to determine whether or not there was an express understanding or agreement as between the obligees as to the disposition that was to be made of such amount due, or, in the absence of an express agreement, whether the law implies an agreement as to the disposition, as between the obligees, that should be made of the amount due under the bond. As before stated, the sole consideration for the giving of this bond wras the execution of the deed by the six children of the testator, which assumed to convey to Loeb the remainder of the property in question. The deed itself, when executed, conveyed no title to the premises. It did transfer whatever right the grantors had; and, upon the estate vesting in them by the death of their mother, it would, by estoppel, vest a valid title tó the premises in the grantee, provided the children of the testator survived their mother. If all the children of the testator had died before their mother, no title at all would then have vested in the grantees, and the consideration for the bond would have wholly failed. By the death of Mrs. Schoeneman, her undivided one-sixth interest in the property vested in her children upon the death of the life tenant; and, by an express provision of the bond, the obligor became entitled to acquire the one-sixth undivided interest that became vested in Mrs. Schoeneman's children, and to deduct from the amount due upon the bond the amount necessarily expended by him in acquiring such title. The effect of this provision would, it seems to me, indicate an intention among the obligees that the obligee whose title failed, and whose conveyance furnished no consideration, should not share in the amount due under the bond; especially where it apeared that, by the breach of a several covenant in the deed, the obligee or her estate became liable to the obligor for the damages sustained in consequence of a breach of the covenant of title. The situation that existed upon the death of Mrs. Schoeneman before her mother was that her estate was liable to Loeb for the damages that he had sustained in consequence of a breach of her covenant of title. It is conceded by all the parties that those damages consisted of the amount that he was compelled to pay to acquire the title of her children to the undivided one-sixth of the property which she had assumed to convey to him. Under the provision of the bond, he had acquired that interest by purchase from her children, and was entitled to deduct the amount that: he had paid to acquire such title from the amount due upon the bond, and that bond was correspondingly reduced. Thus, his claim against the estate of Mrs. Schoeneman was satisfied by deducting from the amount due upon the bond the amount which, under the bond, she would have been entitled to receive, and, in addition thereto, an amount equal to $700 from the share that each of the other obligees would be entitled to receive. That amount Loeb paid, and deducted from the amount that otherwise he would have had to pay to each of these obligees; and it seems to me quite clear that each one of the obligees became subrogated by such payment, which Loeb enforced in pursuance of an agreement that was binding upon Mrs. Sehoeneman, to the right to enforce the covenant made by Mrs. Sehoeneman that she had a good and indefeasible title in fee simple to the premises in question. That right to enforce such covenant, having passed by subrogation to each of the obligees of the bond to the extent of their interests in the bond, entitled them to claim from the estate of Mrs. Sehoeneman the amount that each of them would have been entitled to receive from Loeb in the event that Mrs. Sehoeneman had outlived her mother; and thus her conveyance to Loeb would have become operative.
No case exactly in point has been cited to us, but it seems that the principle established in the case of Pease v. Egan, 131. N. Y. 272, 30 N. E. 104, applies. There a testator had left certain real estate to his wife for life, with the remainder to his children upon the youngest child attaining the age of 21 years. That real estate was subject to a mortgage. He also left certain personal estate, to which the children would become entitled absolutely upon the death of their mother. The widow, in order to protect the real ('state, paid out of this personal estate the mortgage, causing the same to be satisfied of record. One of the children died before the youngest child arrived at the age of 21, and the question was whether or not this mortgage upon the real estate passed by way of subrogation to the representatives of the deceased child, so as to entitle them to enforce the lien of the mortgage against the real estate. The court say:
"The daughter, in fact, has discharged a debt against another, and in the discharge did not act as a mere volunteer. This gives a right of subrogation. The fact that, if she had had an absolute interest in the property as devisee, she. would have been bound to pay the mortgage to the exoneration of the testator's personal estate, does not make the mortgage debt her own. Whether she had any interest in its payment was based upon whether she was a devisee of the realty, and that was based upon a contingency which had not yet occurred; and, when she paid the mortgage or some part thereof, she took the chance of paying a debt for which she was not responsible, in order to preserve an estate her interest in which was contingent. When the contingency subsequently occurred which proved that she had no interest in the property which she had aided in preserving, justice demanded that her estate, which has thus suffered, should be treated as if it had paid the debt of another."
It seems to me that this condition exists in this case. These five surviving obligees to this bond have paid a portion of the debt of Mrs. Schoeneman's which was due to Loeb by virtue of the breach of her covenant of title in the conveyance in question. That was not a voluntary payment, but was a payment by Loeb, deducted from the amount due to these obligees under the provisions of the bond, which were binding upon Mrs. Sehoeneman. Thereby these five obligees became subrogated to the claim that Loeb had as against Mrs. Sehoeneman to enforce the breach of her covenant of title, and thus became entitled to compel Mrs. Schoeneman's children to make good to them the loss which they had sustained in consequence oí Loeb's enforcing the agreement to repay to him the amount due him from Mrs.'Schoeneman in consequence of the breach of her covenant of title.
I think, therefore, that the judgment was right, and it should be affirmed, with costs.
VAN BRUNT, P. J., and WILLIAMS and PATTERSON, JJ., concur.