Tinker v. Ringo's Ex'r

• Decision Date: 23 May 1889
• Citation: 11 S.W. 605
• Parties: TINKER v. RINGO'S EX'R et al.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

11 S.W. 605

TINKER v. RINGO'S EX'R et al.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

May 23, 1889

Appeal from circuit court, Campbell county; W. E. ARTHUR, Judge.

"Not to be officially reported."

Hallam & Myers, for appellant.

George Washington, R. W. Nelson, and Paxton & Warrington, for appellees.

LEWIS C.J.

William Ringo, a wealthy bachelor, having in a petition filed by him made all the statements required by section 17, c. 31, Gen St., a judgment was in March 1881, rendered in the Campbell circuit court, that an infant about two weeks old, the parentage of whom was unknown, be his heir at law by the name of Anna Maria Ringo, capable as such of inheriting of him as though she was his child, and that he thereafter have parental control of her. Between 1879 and 1884 William Ringo obtained the custody of five other small children, none of them over six years old at the time he took them under his care, and each of them was, by judgment of the circuit court duly rendered, adopted as his heir at law, made capable of inheriting as such as though his child, and placed under his parental control; the last one of the judgments having been rendered in October, 1883. In 1884 the will of William Ringo he being then dead, was duly probated and admitted to record by the Campbell county court, by which he devised the whole of his estate, real and personal, to the six adopted children by name, particular provisions being made therein for their support and education. March, 1886, William Tinker appealed from the order of the county court establishing the will to the Campbell circuit court, and with his appeal he filed a written statement that he, and the others mentioned by him and made parties to the appeal, were heirs at law of William Ringo. Thereupon the executor of the will and person appointed by the testator guardian of the six adopted children filed an affidavit, which was called an "answer" to the statement of William Tinker, in which it was denied that he or any of the persons named in his statement, except the six adopted children, were heirs at law of William Ringo, or had any interest in the estate. And in the answer the several judgments of the Campbell circuit court adopting the six children were mentioned and transcripts of the proceedings in which they were rendered filed as parts of the answer. In the affidavit of William Tinker, called a "reply," it was alleged that the several judgments mentioned...