Court Opinion

ID: 9700751
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:48:00.389305+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:14.314408
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion by
Montgomery, J.:
I dissent from the majority in this case because it is clear to me that the testator intended to preserve his home for his three children until such time as they might mutually agree to sell it. At the time the will was drawn and at the time of testator’s death, he and his three children lived together. The son was married but the two daughters were unmarried. The son sold his interest to plaintiffs-appellees, who now, as persons outside the family group, seek to accomplish the ejectment of the two daughters from their family home by means of this partition proceeding. Legally and equitably this should not be permitted.
The law is clearly stated in the majority opinion. It is the intention of the testator that governs. This is not a commercial matter as in Stineman v. Stineman (cited in the majority opinion), where the sale of coal and fire clay was involved. This is the preservation of a home for testator’s three children until the last of them should agree to abandon it. In my opinion, the will clearly expresses this intention; but if there is any *379doubt, an examination of the situation of the parties at. the time that the will was made may be considered. Jackson’s Estate, 337 Pa. 561, 12 A. 2d 338. “. . . the intention of a devisor is the polar star in the construction of wills and that in searching for intention, a will is to be superimposed upon the panorama of actuality existing at the time of the will’s execution.” Ackerman’s Estate, 395 Pa. 179, 149 A. 2d 462.