Margaret Taylor v. Mary Leesnitzer

• Decision Date: 20 March 1911
• Docket Number: No. 45,45
• Citation: 55 L.Ed. 382,220 U.S. 90,31 S.Ct. 371
• Parties: MARGARET E. TAYLOR, in Her Own Right and as Executrix of Thomas Taylor, Deceased, Appt., v. MARY J. LEESNITZER, Elizabeth E. Padgett, and Franklin C. Padgett
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

220 U.S. 90

31 S.Ct. 371

55 L.Ed. 382

MARGARET E. TAYLOR, in Her Own Right and as Executrix of Thomas Taylor, Deceased, Appt.,

v MARY J. LEESNITZER, Elizabeth E. Padgett, and Franklin C. Padgett.

No. 45.

Argued March 8, 1911.

Decided March 20, 1911.

Messrs. J. J. Darlington and J. Nota McGill for appellant.

Mr. Edmund burke for appellees.

Mr. Justice Holmes delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a decree of the court of appeals of the District of Columbia, dismissing an appeal from a decree of the supreme court. The bill was brought by the appellee Leesnitzer, as one of the heirs of Thomas Taylor, for a partition between herself and the other heirs of lands acquired by Taylor after the execution of his last will. By the will, Taylor left all his estate, both real and personal, to his widow, the appellant. See Bradford v. Matthews, 9 App. D. C. 438; Crenshaw v. McCormick, 19 App. D. C. 494; D. C. Code § 1628 [31 Stat. at L. 1433, chap. 854]; Hardenbergh v. Ray, 151 U. S. 112, 38 L. ed. 93, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 305. The bill, of course, was adverse to the appellant's right under the will, and also prayed that she might be declared barred of her dower. See Clark v. Roller, 199 U. S. 541, 545, 50 L. ed. 300, 302, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 141. After a trial there was a decree for the plaintiff 'unless the defendant, Margaret E. Taylor, shall perfect her appeal from this decree, which is prayed by her in open court and allowed, by giving a supersedeas bond in the penal sum of $1,000.' The decree was filed on May 28, 1907. On June 3, 1907, an appeal bond was filed, but, in accordance with the rules, under ordinary conditions, was not printed in the transcript of the record sent to the court of appeals. The record was filed in that court on July 17, 1907. On February 12, 1908, the plaintiff Leesnitzer filed a motion that the appeal be dismissed, because (1) Elizabeth E. Padgett, an heir and one of the defendants, 'has not been joined either as an appellee or appellant or as a party hereto. (2) That there has been no summons and severance, or service of notification of appeal upon said Elizabeth E. Padgett. Edmund Burke, solicitor for appellee.' This motion was granted, on the ground that Mrs. Padgett was not made a party to the appeal.

Thereupon the appellant moved to modify the decree by allowing the appellant to correct her appeal by citing the omitted parties, and for such further proceedings as might be necessary to a decision of the cause upon its merits. The court held that as Mrs. Padgett had admitted the allegations of the bill, and had arrayed herself on the plaintiff's side, and as she had got all that she could expect by the decree, the appellant did not need to obtain a severance, but that the appeal should have been taken against her as well as against the plaintiff, and that the supersedeas bond should have run to both, which 'an inspection of the bond in office of the clerk below' showed not to have been the case. It was objected that the court could not look beyond the record before it, which, as we have indicated, contained only a memorandum that a bond had been filed. But the record was entitled, 'Margaret E. Taylor, etc. v. Mary J. Leesnitzer,' until within a few days before the case was called for hearing, when the appellant ex parte caused the cover of the printed record to be changed so as to name also Elizabeth E. Padgett and Franklin Padgett as appellees. It was said that if the court should confine itself to the record, the presumption was that the title of the appeal followed the obligation of the bond. On this ground the court, with expressions of...