Will Menaces Possible Site Of 8th House

An unusual will may delay the University's obtaining complete control of the probable site for the eighth house, a Boston attorney has revealed.

By dividing his land among seven heirs, two of whom live in Ireland, the previous owner of 39 Cowperthwaite Street has made his entailed house a difficult thing to buy. This plot is one of the three privately owned properties left in the western end of the block between Dunster and Leverett Houses.

"I don't think there is any chance of a sale without a court order," John A. Daly '12, the legatees' lawyer, said last night. Unless the case is taken to court, consent of all seven title-holders will be necessary before the transaction can take place.

Daly denied that agents of Hunneman & Co., the University's property managers, had made him a concrete offer for the land, although he said they had approached him "within the last year."

"If they do name a flat sum, then I will certainly pass the information along to the owners," he added, "but so far I have nothing definite enough to transmit." He declined to reveal his clients' names.

The situation will continue to become more involved the longer the plot remains unsold, Daly pointed out. Any one of the seven owners might leave his share of the estate to several more people, each of whom would then own a small fraction of the estate.

If the University should gain control of the land, it will have no difficulty in evicting the tenants of the building, according to Daly.