Helfrich v. Obermyer
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Common Pleas of Union county. This was an action of dower, brought by Elizabeth Obermyer against Josiah Helfrich, to recover dower out of a tract of land in Beaver township, which was once the property of her late husband, Michael Obermyer, now deceased. ■ The only question raised by the case stated was, whether Josiah Helfrich held the land discharged from Elizabeth Obermyer’s right of dower; or, in other words, whether a sale of land by an assignee under a…
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Error to the Common Pleas of Union county. This was an action of dower, brought by Elizabeth Obermyer against Josiah Helfrich, to recover dower out of a tract of land in Beaver township, which was once the property of her late husband, Michael Obermyer, now deceased. ■ The only question raised by the case stated was, whether Josiah Helfrich held the land discharged from Elizabeth Obermyer’s right of dower; or, in other words, whether a sale of land by an assignee under a voluntary assignment for the benefit of creditors, divests the right of dower of the wife, after the death of the assignor…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
Land is a chattel for payment of debts only when the law has made it a fund for that purpose. It then has undergone a species of conversion, so far as may be necessary to the purpose of • satisfaction, which extinguishes every derivative interest in it which cannot consist with the qualities it has been made to assume. Thus, a judgment, or a mortgage, binds it and converts it; and it is seized as personal property, on a fieri faeias, which commands the sheriff to levy the debt off the defendant’s goods and chattels. We readily comprehénd…
2Cited by4 opinions
- Briegel v. BriegelSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1931
- Mills v. RitterSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1900
- Hay v. MeyersSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1934
- In re KligermanDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania · 1918