Sullivan and others v. Andoe and others.
Circuit Court, D. Maryland. April 5, 1881.)
1. Decedent's Estate—Distribution—Fraud.
A bill in equity was flied by certain aliens, residing in Ireland, claiming to be the next of kin of an intestate who had died in St. Louis, seeking to set aside a distribution of his personal estate made by his administrators under orders of the probate court of St. Louis. The proof showed that the distribution was procured by fraud, and that the persons to whom the estate had been distributed were not the intestate's next of kin, and that the complainants were.
Held, that the distribution of the probate court having been procured by fraud, should be set aside and the fund brought into this court.
2. Lunatic—Process—Service on Committee.
The only one of the persons to whom the estate had been distributed, found within the district, was a lunatic, to whose Committee one-fourth of the estate had been paid. She had been returned summoned by service on her committee, and he had appeared and fully answered, and on her behalf, with the assistance of able counsel, had resisted the claims of the complainants. After taking testimony in Ireland and several of the United States for over two years, the case came on for final hearing. The lunatic had been for about 30 years in an insane asylum in the district, and had been found non compos by a jury, and so adjudged by a competent state court, which appointed her committee.
Held, under the circumstances, that service of the subpoena on the lunatic by service on the committee was sufflcient, and that the answer of the committee should be taken and treated as the answer of the lunatic.
3. Laches.
Held, under the facts of the case, that the complainants had not lost their right to relief by delay.
4. Decedent's Estate—Administration—Parties to Proceedings.
Held, that the children of a brother of the intestate, who died after the intestate, could sue as complainants, and that administration could be taken, after the fund sought to be reoovered was brought into court.
5. Lunatic—Fund in Hands of Committee—Jurisdiction.
Held, that the fund in the hands of the committee was not in the custody and possession of the court which appointed him in such sense that no other court could adjudicate with regard to the title to it.
In Equity. Before Bond and Mobbis, JJ.
v.6,no.7—41
