Richardson ex rel. Richardson v. Frederitze

• Decision Date: 31 October 1864
• Citation: 35 Mo. 266
• Parties: JOHN RICHARDSON, GUARDIAN OF THE MINOR HEIRS OF ELLEN RICHARDSON, Plaintiff in Error, v. JOHN M. FREDERITZE, EXEC'R OF THE ESTATE OF JOHN RICHARDSON, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

35 Mo. 266

JOHN RICHARDSON, GUARDIAN OF THE MINOR HEIRS OF ELLEN RICHARDSON, Plaintiff in Error,

v.JOHN M. FREDERITZE, EXEC'R OF THE ESTATE OF JOHN RICHARDSON, Defendant in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1864.

Error to Jefferson Circuit Court.

Pipkin & Thomas, for plaintiff in error.

Abner Green, for defendant in error.

DRYDEN, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The proceedings in this case originated in the following petition to the Jefferson County Court, viz.:

“To the Hon. County Court of Jefferson county, Mo. Your petitioner, John Richardson, curator and guardian of the minor heirs of Ellen Richardson, deceased, would respectfully represent unto your honorable body, that John Richardson, Sr., in the year 1861, made a will and died testate; that by such will the testator bequeathed to the said Ellen all his property, both real and personal, in trust, to take care of the same as trustee for the benefit of his two sons, George and Samuel, and his daughter Ellen, and the children of the latter, except some special legacies given to others, and that said Samuel and Ellen are dead. Your petitioner therefore prays the court to appropriate one hundred dollars, for the support of each one of the minor heirs of said Ellen (they being now entirely destitute), out of personal assets of the estate of said Richardson, deceased, now in the hands of Michael Frederitze, executor thereof; which appropriation is asked for the support of said children (there being six) until another trustee can be appointed in the place of said Ellen, deceased. (Signed.) John Richardson, curator and guardian of John, Shelton, Cynthia, Susan, Merrill and William Richardson, minor heirs of Ellen Richardson, deceased.”

The county court complied with the prayer of the petition so far as to appropriate out of the estate of the testator John Richardson, Sr., deceased, the sum of fifty dollars to each of the six children of Ellen, from which order of the county court Frederitze, the executor of the will of John Richardson, deceased, appealed to the Circuit Court. On the trial in the Circuit Court the judgment of the county court was reversed, and the petitioner has brought the case to this court by writ of error.

The question made in this court involves the construction of the will of John Richardson, Sr., but, from the view we have taken of the case, we do not deem it proper to give any opinion upon that question; clearly, the plaintiff in error has no right to...