Meyers v. Kooke
| Decision Date | 13 November 1924 |
| Docket Number | 6. |
| Citation | 126 A. 710,146 Md. 471 |
| Parties | MEYERS v. KOOKE ET AL. IN RE EVERDING'S WILL. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Orphans' Court of Baltimore City.
"To be officially reported."
In the matter of the last will and testament of Herman B. L Everding, deceased. From an order of the orphans' court dismissing a caveat filed by Marie Meyers, she appeals. Order affirmed.
Argued before BOYD, C.J., and PATTISON, URNER, ADKINS, OFFUTT DIGGES, BOND, and PARKE, JJ.
Frank Driscoll, of Baltimore, for appellant.
James W. Chapman, Jr., and James McC. Trippe, both of Baltimore for appellees.
The will of Herman B. L. Everding, of Baltimore, bequeathed $1,000 to his cousin, Mrs. Mary Meyers, of Gehrde, in the province of Hanover, Germany. The orphans' court of Baltimore city admitted the will to probate, without contest, and granted letters testamentary to the designated executors. There were certain provisions of the will which the executors desired to have judicially construed. They accordingly filed a bill of complaint in the circuit court of Baltimore city invoking its jurisdiction for the construction of the will, and the distribution of the estate. Mrs. Meyers, with other defendants, by Charles H. Kooke, as their attorney in fact, and by B. Harris Henderson, as their solicitor, answered the bill of complaint and consented to the judicial action therein proposed. The circuit court subsequently passed a decree assuming jurisdiction, construing the will, and directing a distribution. In pursuance of the decree, and after the ratification of an audit prepared in conformity with its directions, the executors paid to Mr. Kooke, as attorney in fact for Mrs. Meyers, the sum of $929.40, being the amount of her legacy, less the collateral inheritance tax and certain costs. The money so received by the attorney was deposited in the name of Mrs. Meyers, subject to his order, in the Hopkins Place Savings Bank of Baltimore. A formal release of the executors from any further liability on account of the legacy was executed by Mr. Kooke in the exercise of the full and specific authority conferred upon him by the power of attorney. Upon being notified of the receipt and deposit of the money, and of Mr. Kooke's readiness to forward all or any part of it to her, as she might desire, Mrs. Meyers requested him to send her a small portion of the legacy. With this request he promptly complied. The balance of the fund has since remained on deposit in the savings bank, awaiting Mrs. Meyers' instructions as to its remittance.
About three months after the payment of the legacy by the executors a caveat to the will was filed by Mrs. Meyers, alleging that it was not duly signed and attested, that the testator was not mentally capable at the time of its execution, and that it was procured by undue influence and fraud. The caveat was opposed by the executors and the residuary legatee in answers which denied its allegations and relied upon the caveator's participation in the equity proceeding for the interpretation of the will, and her acceptance of a legacy under its provisions, as an effectual bar to her present effort to contest its validity. At the hearing in the orphans' court the record of the case in the circuit court was offered and admitted. The record included the original power of attorney to Mr. Kooke signed by Mrs. Meyers and acknowledged by her before a German notary, whose act was duly authenticated by a judge of the jurisdiction in which the acknowledgment was made and certified. There was testimony by Mr. Kooke before the orphans' court as to his receipt and disposition of Mrs. Meyers' legacy, and his release to the executors was offered in evidence. The orphans' court dismissed the...
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