Hopkins v. Roberts

• Decision Date: 30 June 1880
• Citation: Hopkins v. Roberts, 54 Md. 312 (Md. 1880)
• Parties: JOHN P. HOPKINS v. JOSEPH K. ROBERTS, JR., and RICHARD WOOTTON, Trustees.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

54 Md. 312

JOHN P. HOPKINS v. JOSEPH K. ROBERTS, JR., and RICHARD WOOTTON, Trustees.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

June 30, 1880

APPEAL from the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, in Equity.

This appeal was taken from an order of the Court(MAGRUDER, J.,) below, finally ratifying and confirming a sale to John P Hopkins, reported by the trustees, Roberts and Wootton, and requiring the said Hopkins to pay or bring into Court the sum of $1308.75, being the amount of the purchase money, after crediting the sum of $30, admitted by the trustees to have been paid to the trustee Wootton, or show cause to the contrary, &c.The case is stated in the opinion of this Court.

The cause was argued before BARTOL, C.J., BOWIE, MILLER, ALVEY and ROBINSON, J.

C C. Magruder, Jr., Frank H. Stockett and C. C Magruder, for the appellant.

Jos. K. Roberts, Jr., for the appellees.

BOWIE J., delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question presented by this appeal is, whether a sale reported by the appellees, as trustees, to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, in the matter of the real estate of Anne Elizabeth Wootton, deceased, should be ratified?The deceased, by her last will and testament, dated the twentieth of November, 1866, duly executed to pass real estate and admitted to probate by the Orphans' Court of said county, devised and directed, that when certain mortgage debts therein mentioned should become due, if they should become due during the life of her mother, Daniel Clarke, as trustee, and her brother, Richard Wootton, should, in their discretion, have power to sell and convey so much of the real estate of which the testatrix died seized and possessed, as might be necessary to pay the said mortgage debts, or to raise by mortgage upon the said real estate executed by them jointly, such sum as should be necessary to discharge the mortgage debts.Messrs. Clarke and Wootton, by virtue and in pursuance of this power, reported to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, on the thirteenth of January, 1874, a sale of two hundred and eight and a quarter acres of land to John P. Hopkins, the appellant, for $5606.95, which sale was finally ratified and confirmed.

Mr. Clarke having died in the interim, on the twelfth of April, 1878, Messrs. Wootton and Roberts filed their report in the said case, setting forth the preceding matters and sale, and further reported: "That the aforesaid sum of money not being sufficient for the payment of the mortgage debt, as well as a certain judgment debt due by the said Anne Elizabeth Wootton to a certain John T. and Richard Hardesty, the said Daniel Clarke and Richard Wootton did, on or about ______ February, 1875, sell unto the said John P. Hopkins another portion of the real estate of the said Anne Elizabeth Wootton, containing fifty-nine and one-half acres, at and for the sum of $22.50 per acre, amounting in the whole to $1338.75; that the said John P. Hopkins paid to the trustees, on account of said purchase, the sum of thirty dollars in cash, and took possession of said portion of said real estate last sold, and has been in possession thereof since that time, receiving and appropriating to himself the issues and profits therefrom, but has failed, to the present time to pay any further portion of said purchase money; that since said sale, on or about the first of May, 1876, the said Daniel Clarke died, before having reported, together with the trustee, Wootton, the sale for ratification.The trustees, therefore, deeming said sale advantageous to said estate, recommend the same to the Court for ratification."

On this report, an order of ratification " nisi" was passed.

The appellant filed an answer to the petition and report of the appellees, and replying to that portion, in regard to the alleged second sale, denied that he ever afterwards purchased another portion of said real estate of the late Daniel Clarke and said Richard...