## Facts

- In 1947, Joyce King conveyed a farm by deed to two married couples: Harry L. Michael and Bertha M. Michael (as tenants by the entireties) and Ford W. Michael and Helen M. Michael (as tenants by the entireties), followed by the phrase “with right of survivorship.”
- Harry and Bertha were parents of two sons, Robert Michael and Ford Michael.
- Harry died before 1962; Bertha survived him and died testate in 1963.
- Bertha’s will purported to devise her interest in the farm to Robert and provided Ford a monetary bequest; Robert and Ford served as co-executors.
- A dispute arose in the estate administration over whether Bertha owned any devisable interest in the farm at her death.
- The probate court construed the deed as creating a joint tenancy with right of survivorship between the two couples and concluded the entire farm vested in Ford and Helen upon the deaths of Harry and Bertha.

## Issues

1. Whether a deed conveying property to two married couples “as tenants by the entireties … with right of survivorship” created a joint tenancy with survivorship between the couples or a tenancy in common between them.
2. Whether, under the proper construction of the deed, the decedent held a devisable one-half interest that passed through her estate.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reversed.
- As between the two couples, the deed created a tenancy in common, not a joint tenancy with right of survivorship.
- Each couple held its undivided one-half interest by the entirety.
- Bertha’s undivided one-half interest (acquired fully upon Harry’s death) was part of her probate estate and could pass under her will.

## Legal Principles

- Pennsylvania law presumes a tenancy in common unless a conveyance clearly expresses an intent to create a joint tenancy with survivorship.
- A tenancy by the entirety inherently includes survivorship between spouses as to that couple’s interest.
- A general or ambiguously placed survivorship phrase is insufficient to overcome the presumption against joint tenancy, especially where survivorship already exists within each entireties estate.
- Ambiguity in a deed’s creation of concurrent estates is resolved against finding a joint tenancy between distinct grantee units.

## Conclusion

The court held that the deed’s single survivorship phrase did not clearly create a joint tenancy between the two married couples; instead, the couples took as tenants in common (with entireties ownership within each couple), so the decedent’s one-half interest remained devisable through her estate.


In re Estate of Michael, 218 A.2d 338 (Pa. 1966)