Lancaster's Adm'r v. Lancaster's Adm'r

• Decision Date: 13 June 1889
• Citation: Lancaster's Adm'r v. Lancaster's Adm'r, 86 Va. 201, 9 S.E. 988 (1889)
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: Lancaster's Adm'r et al. v. Lancaster's Adm'r et al.

9 S.E. 988

(86 Va. 201)

Lancaster's Adm'r et al.

v.Lancaster's Adm'r et al.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.

June 13, 1889.

Appealable Orders.

A bill was filed by the personal representatives and heirs of T. against the personal representatives and heirs of J., to compel the conveyance to complainant heirs of certain real estate in which they claimed a trust resulting from conveyances made by T. to J., and to set aside a conveyance fraudulently procured by J. to be made to himself by T.'s wife under a power of appointment in a deed by T. to her; also to obtain a decree for the interest or amount due from J.'s estate to t.'s estate on account of T.'s share in the profits of abanking business carried on by J., and for an account of the profits made by J. on the sale of certain personalty, and of the rents and profits of certain of the real estate mentioned.Held, that an order overruling a demurrer to the bill was not an order adjudicating the principles of the cause, within the meaning of CodeVa.1873, c. 178, § 2, authorizing any party to any case in chancery, wherein there is an order adjudicating the principles of the cause, to present a petition for an appeal from such order.The effect of the order is not to declare that the case depends upon an account of the alleged partnership, and to compel the account, but it merely declares that if the plaintiffs establish the case made in the billthey may be entitled to the relief sought.

Appeal from circuit court, Washington county.

D. Trigg, for appellants.Fulkerson & Page, for appellees.

Hinton, J.The only facts necessary to be stated, in the aspect in which this case is now presented, are these: At November rules, 1857, of the circuit court of Washington county, a bill was filed by the personal representatives and heirs at law of Thomas C. Lancaster, deceased, against Robert L. Harrison and Samuel Anna Lancaster, who were the foreign administrator and adminis-trix of John J. Lancaster, deceased, and the said Samuel Anna Lancaster, in her own right, and Agnes Lancaster, Julia Duncan Lancaster, and Howel Moody Lancaster, infant children of the said John J. Lancaster, deceased, and Julia A. Lancaster, widow of Thomas C. Lancaster, deceased, Lewis Wood-ville Lancaster, and George W. Lancaster, minor children of R. T. Lancaster, deceased, the purpose and object of which was to compel the infant children of John J. Lancaster to convey to the heirs at law of Thomas C. Lancaster, deceased, certain real estate in Goodson, Va., and in Jackson, Tenn., to which the said heirs of T. C. Lancaster alleged they were entitled by resulting trust from conveyances thereof alleged to have been made by the said T. C. Lancaster, in his life-time, to their father, the said John J. Lancaster.Another object of the bill was to annul and set aside a deed from Mrs. Julia A. Lancaster to John J. Lancaster, dated November 18, 1882, under a power of appointment in a deed executed to her by her husband, the said T. C. Lancaster, on account of the alleged fraudulent and improper conduct of the said John J. Lancaster in procuring himself to be designated as the recipient and appointee of the said property.The other objects of the bill were to obtain a decree for the interest or amount that might be found due from the estate of John J. Lancaster to the estate of T. C. Lancaster on account of the shares of the said T. C. Lancaster in the profits of a certain banking business carried on by the said John J. Lancaster in the state of New York, and to have the following amounts, namely, an account of the proceeds of certain sales of property so conveyed, alleged to have been made by John J. Lancaster; an account of the rents and profits of certain of the real estate mentioned in the bill as having been conveyed by the said T. C. Lancaster to the said John J. Lancaster; and an account of the proceeds of an insurance policy taken upon the life of Thomas C. Lancaster for the benefit of his wife, the said ...