Delamater's Estate
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
This was an appeal from a decree of the Orphans’ Court for the County of Philadelphia, in the matter of the accounts of M. W. Pike and Jacob Dunton, executors of the will of John Delamater, deceased. , The circumstances which gave rise to the only question in controversy in this case, are as follows:— John Delamater of the City of Philadelphia, died about the 10th of December, 1829, leaving two children only, viz.
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This was an appeal from a decree of the Orphans’ Court for the County of Philadelphia, in the matter of the accounts of M. W. Pike and Jacob Dunton, executors of the will of John Delamater, deceased. , The circumstances which gave rise to the only question in controversy in this case, are as follows:— John Delamater of the City of Philadelphia, died about the 10th of December, 1829, leaving two children only, viz. Ann, and Caroline, the wife of Jacob Dunton; and leaving also a will dated the 25th of July, 1829, which it is deemed necessary to insert entire, as follows: — ■ “ The last Will and…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by—
Gibson, C.'J.
We are called upon, not to withhold our assistance from the execution of an agreement, but to cancel a contract executed; and it is to be noticed that there is a material difference between circumstances which require a chancellor to forbear, and those which require him to act. On a question of specific performance he may "choose to be silent; and his action, being of grace and not of right, is to be directed by a sound though legal discretion. But circumstances proper for rescisión, involving, as they do, the control of a legal right,…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Stouffer v. LatshawSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1834
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