Gallagher v. Martin
| Decision Date | 16 November 1905 |
| Citation | 62 A. 247,102 Md. 115 |
| Parties | GALLAGHER v. MARTIN. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Orphans' Court, Allegany County; Millard F. Davis and Wm. A. Brashears, Judges.
Suit by Thomas E. Gallagher, as executor of the last will of Mary Navin, deceased, to set aside an account stated by him as executor and a distribution thereunder, in which Bridget Martin filed an answer. From an order dismissing the petition, the executor appeals. Reversed.
Argued before McSHERRY, C.J., and FOWLER, BRISCOE, BOYD, PAGE PEARCE, SCHMUCKER, and JONES, JJ.
Taylor & Morrison, for appellant.
Wm. H Cole and J.W.S. Cochrane, for appellee.
This is an appeal from an order of the orphans' court of Allegany county passed in a proceeding founded on a petition filed by the appellant, Thomas E. Gallagher, as executor of the last will of Mary Navin, deceased. The substantial facts alleged in the petition are as follows: Mary Navin, after having made her will, by which she gave a legacy of $200 to the appellee Bridget Martin, had, during her lifetime, on May 1, 1903 through the hands of the petitioner as her agent, paid to the said Bridget Martin $200 in cash in full satisfaction extinguishment, and discharge of the legacy, and such payment was at that time understood by all parties to the transaction to have been made for that purpose. Shortly thereafter Mary Navin died, and her will was duly admitted to probate, and letters testamentary on her estate issued to the appellant. In July, 1904, the appellant went to the register of wills of Allegany county to have a testamentary account stated. He mentioned to the register the fact of the payment of the $200 to Bridget Martin during the lifetime of the testatrix, and the circumstances under which it was made. The register thereupon proceeded to state the account in such form as to show a distribution to be made by the appellant, as executor, to Bridget Martin, of the $200 legacy which had been paid to her in the lifetime of the testatrix in the manner already mentioned. The appellant, who is a clergyman and unfamiliar with the steps required by the law to be taken in such cases, supposed the account which had been thus stated for him by the register to be correct, and passed it ex parte in the orphans' court. After he had passed the account Bridget Martin sued him in the circuit court for Allegany county to recover the legacy of $200 as appearing to be due her from him as executor upon the face of the account. The prayer to the petition was that the account be set aside and a distribution of the personal estate of the testatrix in his hands be made, under the supervision of the orphans' court, on a day to be by it named after due notice to all parties interested, in conformity with the provisions of section 143 (now section 142) of article 93 of the Code of Public General Laws. On the filing of this petition, the orphans' court passed an order, as prayed for, setting aside the account theretofore passed, and appointing a day for the distribution of the estate under the court's direction. Bridget Martin then filed an answer to the apellant's petition, admitting the making of the legacy to her by the will of Mary Navin, but denying, somewhat evasively, the alleged payment to her of $200 in satisfaction thereof in the lifetime of the testatrix. The answer also admitted the institution of the suit...
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Riddleberger v. Goeller
...and a half years after passage of the account the widow was permitted because of that error to reopen the account. In Gallagher v. Martin, 102 Md. 115, 62 A. 247 (1905), an administration account was prepared by an obliging register of wills for the executor. 1 The executor advised the regi......