Blackburn v. Craufurd

• Decision Date: 03 June 1864
• Citation: 22 Md. 447
• Parties: RICHARD S. BLACKBURN ET AL. v. GEO. T. CRAUFURD ET AL.[a1]
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

22 Md. 447

RICHARD S. BLACKBURN ET AL. v. GEO. T. CRAUFURD ET AL.^[a1]

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

June 3, 1864

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of Prince George's County.

THIS appeal is taken from an order of the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, sitting in equity, dated 21st April 1863, and granting an injunction to prevent the appellant Blackburn, the administrator of Dr. David Craufurd, deceased from making distribution of the estate of his intestate.

The record shows that Dr. David Craufurd, late of Prince George's County, died about the 5th of December 1859. On the 12th January 1860, Richard S. Blackburn applied to the Orphans' Court of that County for administration on the personal estate of the deceased. He claimed to be the nearest of male kin to the deceased. The application was resisted by George T. Craufurd, who claimed to be nephew of the whole blood and next of kin to the deceased, and as such insisted on his right to administration. The Orphans' Court directed that each party file his application in writing, and that the adverse party file his answer thereto, and that plenary proceedings be had thereupon.

Blackburn thereupon filed his petition for letters, averring that the intestate was never married, and that he left neither a widow, nor child, nor children, nor grandchildren, nor father, nor brother, nor sister, nor mother, so that his next of kin of inheritable blood are entitled to the personal estate of the deceased and to administration thereon; that the father of the intestate intermarried with Sarah Blackburn, sister of the petitioner's father, and had by her the intestate David and Nathaniel, Bushrod, Thomas B. and Marion Craufurd, all of whom died without ever having been married or having any issue of inheritable blood. He claims then to be first cousin of the intestate, and that he is the nearest male heir and distributee of the intestate, and entitled to administration on his estate.

To this petition George T. Craufurd filed his answer, in which he avers that Thomas B. Craufurd, one of the sons of Nathaniel Craufurd, died in the year 1848, having previously intermarried with Elizabeth Taylor, and had, as the issue of that marriage the respondent and his three sisters, who are next of kin to the deceased. He tenders himself ready to prove these averments on issues to be sent from the Orphans' Court to the Circuit Court for trial; and he therefore denies the claim of Blackburn, as next of kin, and insists that he himself is the nearest next of kin of the deceased, and as such entitled to administration.

George T. Craufurd, at the same time filed his petition, in which he reiterates his claim as the legitimate offspring of the said Thomas B. Craufurd and Elizabeth Taylor, his lawful wife. And to this petition Blackburn answered, denying that Thomas B Craufurd ever intermarried with Elizabeth Taylor, and averring that the petitioner and his sisters are illegitimate, being born out of lawful wedlock, and having no inheritable blood of the said Thomas B. Craufurd or Dr. David Craufurd.

Issues were then framed and transmitted to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, whence they were removed into the Circuit Court for Charles County ; and were there tried before a jury, who found by their verdict, rendered on the 21st May 1860:

1st. That the said George T. Craufurd is not one of the next of kin to the said David Craufurd, on the part of the father of the said David Craufurd.

2nd. That there is a male other than the said George T. Craufurd, of the next of kin to the said David Craufurd.

3rd. That the said Thomas B. Craufurd was never lawfully married to the said Elizabeth Taylor, either before or after the birth of the said George T. Craufurd.

Exceptions having been reserved on the part of George T. Craufurd, to the rulings of the Circuit Court, the cause was taken on his appeal to the Court of Appeals; which Court, at its December term 1860, affirmed the rulings of the Circuit Court on every exception. And the cause being remanded to the Orphans' Court of Prince George's County, that Court proceeded to grant administration on the personal estate of the intestate to the said Richard S. Blackburn.

On the 5th of April 1861, at the request of the administrator, and with the concurrence of the persons entitled as next of kin, under the hypothesis that Thomas B. Craufurd was never married to Elizabeth Taylor, Samuel H. Brooke and Thomas Berry made a distribution of the negroes belonging to the estate amongst the said personal representatives, and returned their account of distribution to the Orphans' Court of Prince George's County, by which it was approved; and on the 15th April 1862, the administrator passed an additional account of his administration, in which he is allowed the sum of $51,210, " the original appraised value of the negroes distributed, as per distribution filed and recorded."

On the 20th January 1863, the Court passed its order " as to the residue of the personal estate now in the hands of the administrator, that he bring the same into Court as soon as, and when collected, to be invested and secured under the further orders of the Court."

On 10th March 1863, on the application of Blackburn, by petition, and after argument by counsel for Blackburn, and for Craufurd and his sisters, the Orphans' Court ordered that the administrator make distribution of the personal assets of the deceased " among the heirs at law and next of kin of the deceased, named and described in his aforesaid petition, and others in equal degree of relationship on the maternal and paternal side of the deceased, if any" --and stating that the said Blackburn, as administrator, has, with the approbation of the Orphans' Court, " appointed Tuesday, the 21st of April next, for the final settlement and distribution of the personal estate of the deceased, of the assets in hand, when and where all the creditors and heirs at law and next of kin of the said deceased, other than George T. Craufurd and his sisters, and those who have heretofore claimed and do now claim under an alleged marriage between the late Thomas B. Craufurd and one Elizabeth Taylor, are notified to attend the Orphans' Court of the County, with their claims properly vouched, or they may otherwise, by law, be excluded from all benefits in the said deceased's personal estate; " and provision is made for the due publication of that order.

This order was passed in the presence of Craufurd and his sisters, who, without appealing from the order, on the 21st April 1863, filed their bill of complaint, on the equity side of Prince George's County, which is the beginning of the present litigation.

The bill is filed against Blackburn and others, who claim in privity with him, and adversely to Craufurd and his sisters; that is against the persons who by the last order of the Orphans' Court had been declared to be next of kin to the intestate: It states in substance, the death of Dr. David Craufurd, in December 1859, intestate, and leaving a large real and personal estate, and that on the 23rd of March 1861, administration on the personal estate of the intestate, was granted to Blackburn, who, before that time, had entered upon and taken possession of all said real and personal estates; that the complainants are the only children and heirs at law, of Thomas B. Craufurd, a brother of the intestate, and who died in the lifetime of the intestate, and that as such children, they are the only next of kin of the intestate, and sole distributees of his personal estate; that the intestate left other relatives of a more remote degree than the complainants--all of whom, including Blackburn in the number, are made defendants to the bill; and that, nevertheless, Blackburn, in concert and collusion with said other parties, had administered the said personal estate, in so far as he has proceeded with the same, upon the supposition, that he and the said other parties, and not the complainants, are the true next of kin to the intestate; that the complainants brought their action of ejectment, in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, against Blackburn, to recover the real estate of the intestate; and that the action was removed by Blackburn into the Circuit Court of the United States, in which Court, at December Term 1862, a verdict and judgment thereon, was rendered for the plaintiffs, thereby judicially affirming the right of the complainants to the real estate of the intestate, as his only true next of kin.

The bill states further that the complainants have instituted in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, four several suits against Blackburn and the sureties on his administration bond, to recover their respective shares of the said personal estate, and that said actions are yet pending, and they avow their determination to prosecute the same with effect; that the sureties on the administration bond, for the most part, reside in Virginia, and all of them pretend to be next of kin of the intestate, and are acting together in concert and collusion with Blackburn to possess themselves of the said estate; that said bond was not at any time an adequate security for the due administration of the said estate, but in the present distracted state of the country, is altogether insufficient as a security to the complainants; that Blackburn did heretofore, without having obtained an order of the Orphans' Court for the purpose, remove into the State of Virginia a large number of the negroes belonging to the said estate, where they still remain; and that, without the authority of said Court, and in a manner contrary to law, he has distributed the same negroes amongst the parties so recognized by him to be the next of kin, and that he...