Vickery v. Garretson

• Decision Date: 29 May 1987
• Docket Number: No. 85-1250.,85-1250.
• Citation: 527 A.2d 293
• Parties: Dorothy Borden VICKERY, Appellant, v. Lida Adams Roberts GARRETSON, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

527 A.2d 293

Dorothy Borden VICKERY, Appellant, v. Lida Adams Roberts GARRETSON, Appellee.

No. 85-1250.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued June 10, 1986.

Decided May 29, 1987.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Howard L. Vickery, Washington, D.C., for appellant.

Samuel Shepard Jones, Jr., Washington, D.C., for appellee.

Before FERREN, TERRY, and ROGERS, Associate Judges.

FERREN, Associate Judge:

This case presents two questions: First, must the District of Columbia give full faith and credit to a Maine default judgment that decided an issue and awarded relief substantially different from both the issue originally presented and the relief originally requested, without notice to defaulting parties? We conclude that the foreign judgment is not entitled to full faith and credit. Second, are the appellee's counterclaims for two alleged breaches of fiduciary duty that occurred during the 10 — year course of the foreign proceedings barred by laches? We conclude that !aches does bar one counterclaim, but, because the plaintiff in the foreign proceeding lulled the defaulting defendants into inaction, laches does not bar the second counterclaim. Accordingly, we reverse summary judgment for the plaintiff-appellee and remand for further proceedings.

I

Alice Hollister Lerch, a native and domiciliary of Washington, D.C., died in 1951. Lerch, an only child, never married or had children. At the time of her death, Lerch owned several acres of land near Phippsburg, Maine, improved in part by a summer cottage and a farm building. She also had personal property, primarily bonds and bank accounts, located in New York and in Washington, D.C. Lerch left a holographic will, dated July 13, 1949, which stated in relevant part:

I hereby appoint Lida Adams Roberts [Garretson] as executor of this my last will and testament, knowing that she will see that the provisions of this will are faithfully executed according to my wishes herein stated and as explained in conversation with her. . . .

I bequeath to said Lida Adams Roberts [Garretson], my cousin, all of my possessions of whatever nature, for her to distribute, and care for according to the following provisions.

It is my wish that my property located in the township of Phippsburg, State of Maine, consisting of land, housing and contents of houses, become a subsidiary of the estate called Adamsfort, situated in West Springfield, State of New Hampshire, now owned by my aunt Lida Hollister Adams (Mrs. Samuel S. Adams). The purpose of this subsidiary is to supplement the vacation home of Adamsfort, especially for the junior members of the increasing family. It is my hope that this property may become a junior Adamsfort for joint ownership and pleasure managed in accordance with whatever plan is devised for the management of Adamsfort.

All of my money in banks, bonds and U.S. government bonds, with the exception of bequests specified below, is to be used for the care, maintenance and expenses of the above mentioned property in Maine.

If this property is not desired by the family for their joint use, it is not to be sold at any time but is to be deeded to the town [of] Phippsburg in perpetuity for a town community play ground for children and a clubhouse for adults, to be governed by the selectmen of the Town.

Since her parents had died before her, Lerch's only heir-at-law and next-of-kin was her aunt, Lida Hollister Adams, the mother of appellee, Lida Adams Roberts Garretson, and maternal grandmother of appellant, Dorothy Borden Vickery. Adams owned "Adamsfort," the Adams family's summer property located in West Springfield, New Hampshire. Adams died in 1958. Her will left her residuary estate in equal shares to her four children: Dorothy Adams Borden (appellant Vickery's mother), Mildred A. Downey, Lida Adams Roberts Garretson (appellee), and F. Dennette Adams. Dorothy Adams Borden and her husband (Vickery's parents) sold their interest in Adamsfort to the three other Adams children, including Garretson, in 1962. These three siblings sold Adamsfort to an unrelated third party in 1966.

Lerch's will was admitted to probate in the District of Columbia in 1951 and was admitted to ancillary probate in Maine in 1952. Garretson qualified as executrix. Although Garretson was never appointed a trustee, from 1952 to 1972 she acted as the trustee of a testamentary trust Lerch purportedly had created for the benefit of the Adams family. In November 1952, Garretson's attorney, Parker Jones wrote to Garretson, "You are now the Testamentary Trustee of all Miss Lerch's personal property. I assume the state of Maine will agree that you hold title to the real estate under the same designation."

In December 1952, Jones wrote to Garretson's siblings that they were "beneficiar[ies] of the trust now being administered by Lida A. Roberts [Garretson] under the terms of the will of the late Alice H. Lerch." Also in December 1952, Jones met with Vickery and her sister to discuss the Maine property; Vickery was noncommittal about using the property. In January 1953, Vickery's mother, Dorothy Adams Borden, wrote to Jones that his "use of the term `beneficiary' with respect to [her] relates only to such use as [she] may make of the place in Maine," that her daughters had a status identical to hers, and that neither she nor her daughters had indicated a desire to use the place in Maine and thus to avoid its distribution to the Town of Phippsburg. Borden never did use the property before she died in 1975. Jones, and apparently Garretson, continued nonetheless to regard Vickery as a beneficiary after her mother's letter. In 1960 and 1961, Jones suggested that Garretson invite Vickery to use the Maine property. Vickery does not recall ever having been to the Maine property, but since 1952 she had not been invited to use it except once to have drinks there.

In May 1972, Garretson brought an action in Maine to have the trust declared invalid for indefiniteness and uncertainty. The complaint requested distribution of the Maine property in fee simple to the estate of Lida Hollister Adams as Lerch's sole heir-at-law and next-of-kin under the intestate laws of Maine. Because Adams' will gave her property to her children, the Adams children would be successors-in-interest to the Maine property if the Maine action succeeded. Thus, the relief originally sought in the Maine action would have had approximately the same effect as the purported trust: the Maine property would have been shared by the Adams family.¹

The defendants in the Maine action were the nineteen individual members of the Adams family, none of whom was a resident of Maine, and the Town of Phippsburg, a contingent claimant. Garretson brought the action in her individual capacity and as executrix of the Lerch will. The court did not appoint a successor trustee or a trustee ad litem. All the individual defendants were served by certified mail. The complaint was accompanied by a terse cover letter from John Carey, Garretson's attorney,² and by a receipt card, which stated in its entirety:

I acknowledge receipt of Summons and Complaint for Construction of Will in the above captioned matter sent to me by certified mail. I do not wish to file an appearance or file objections to the disposition to be made by the Court in this matter.

Vickery and most of the individual defendants signed and returned the cards to Carey, who apparently filed them with the court. The only opposition came from the Town of Phippsburg. Except for Tom Roberts (one of Garretson's sons), none of the individual defendants appeared in Maine to defend the action. Roberts entered an appearance but then did not appear to contest the action. Apparently for that reason, the court found Roberts in default. The court did not specifically find any other defendant in default.

On July 20, 1973, a year after the lawsuit was filed, Garretson wrote a letter to her siblings, including appellant's mother, describing the lawsuit as a "friendly suit" brought to "eliminate the legal limbo still overshadowing [Lerch's] property under Maine trust law."

In anticipation that the Maine court will rule that the four of us are the legal heirs but, wishing to honor in a viable way Alice[] [Lerch's] desire to establish a trust, I am writing this letter now to ask if each of you would be willing to sign over your ¼ interest to me . . . . Thereafter I will create a trust for the Maine property set up in such a way that the family members named in the friendly suit who wish to contribute financially to the up-keep of the property may participate in its use.

A month later, on July 29, 1973, Garretson wrote her sister, Mildred Downey, that, given certain legal problems with the Lerch Trust, her lawyer had counselled her to ask the court to declare the trust invalid and to award the property to the four children of Lida Hollister Adams. "The point [of the suit] is to keep [the Maine property] in the family, devise an orderly transfer of responsibility and provide a sensible arrangement for its management and possible eventual disposal by sale." Garretson represented that her intention was to set up a new trust: "In any case, you may be sure that a trust will be designed to take into account everybody's interest in the continuing use of the place for family recreation as well as for equitable distribution of proceeds should a family consultation of the trust beneficiaries with other interested family members mentioned in the suit, conclude at some future time that disposal of the property by sale is the most prudent course of action." She concluded her letter by stating that Carey, her attorney, was "in effect, representing all of us in this matter vis-a-vis the court."

The case proceeded slowly, in part because Garretson's attorney, Carey, died in 1975. When new counsel took over in 1977 (five years after suit was filed), Garretson began to assert, for the first time, that she alone was entitled to...