Von Lingen v. Field
| Decision Date | 04 April 1928 |
| Docket Number | 28. |
| Citation | 141 A. 390,154 Md. 638 |
| Parties | VON LINGEN ET AL. v. FIELD ET AL. |
| Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Circuit Court of Baltimore City; Eli Frank and H. Arthur Stump, Judges.
"To be officially reported."
Suit by Oscar von Lingen and another, executors of the last will and testament of the codicil of Catherine Marie von Lingen deceased, against W. R. Mason Field and others. From an adverse decree, plaintiffs appeal. Reversed and remanded.
Argued before BOND, C.J., and PATTISON, URNER, ADKINS, OFFUTT DIGGES, PARKE, and SLOAN, JJ.
David Ash, of Baltimore (John C. Kump, of Baltimore, on the brief) for appellants.
R. E. L. Marshall, of Baltimore (Charles H. Carter, of Baltimore, on the brief), for appellees.
The fundamental question in this case is whether the share of an American residuary legatee, to whom, during the period of the European War, certain American securities belonging to a German estate were transferred by the executors, prior to the date of general distribution, should be charged in the final settlement with a large intervening appreciation of the American assets as valued in the depreciating German currency. The advancement was made in the course of the administration of the estate of Catherine Marie von Lingen, who died in Bremen, Germany, in August, 1916, leaving a will which named her six nephews and two nieces as her residuary legatees, with equal rights of participation. One of the nieces was Alberta L. Field (née von Lingen), wife of Charles W. Field, of Baltimore, Md. The testatrix, at the time of her death, was the owner of various stocks and bonds, of American corporations, in the custody of the firm of A. Schumacher & Co., of Baltimore, of which Carl A. Luederitz, one of the residuary legatees, was a member. In October, 1916, Mrs. Field requested the executors of her aunt's will to advance her $20,000 on account of her share of the estate, by transferring to her a portion of the American securities at their current market value. The executors consented to make the proposed advancement, but before it was made Mrs. Field died, in December, 1916, leaving a will by which she appointed her husband as executor, and bequeathed to him "all moneys due and payable" to her "from any source." In February, 1917, Messrs. Schumacher & Co., acting under instructions from the executors in Germany, transferred to Mr. Field, as executor of his deceased wife's will, American railway bonds and stocks having a total market value of $19,788.75. It does not appear whether there was a payment of cash to the amount of the difference between the value of the securities delivered and the whole amount agreed to be advanced, but Mr. Field, as executor, acknowledged in writing that he had received "the sum of twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) equal in German money at the current rate of 68 3/8 to one hundred and seventeen thousand and one mark and eighty-three pfennigs (Mk. 117001 83/100) as a partial payment on account of the legacy given to said Alberta L. Field under the last will and testament of said Marie von Lingen." It was stated in the receipt to be the understanding that the balance of the legacy of Mrs. Field should be paid to her husband as the executor of her will as soon as the estate of her aunt should be finally settled and the amount of Mrs. Field's share ascertained. The receipt contained the following agreement by Mr. Field. in his capacity as executor:
"It being further understood that in the event the above amount already paid to me shall upon final settlement of said estate of said Marie von Lingen be shown to be more than the total amount of the legacy due to said Alberta L. Field, then I am to repay the said Eberhard Noltenius, executor of Marie von Lingen, whatever amount has been paid to me over and above the full amount due to said Alberta L. Field, or her estate, from the estate of said Marie von Lingen."
In the administration of his wife's estate, Mr. Field charged himself as executor with assets aggregating in value $191,631.64, including $20,000 "received of executors of Marie von Lingen on account of legacy due to said Alberta Luise Field prior to her death," and that sum, under the same identification, he distributed to himself as part of the bequest to him, by his wife's will, of all money to which at the time of her death she was entitled. The residuary estate of Mrs. Field was applied to the purposes of a trust which her will created, and which is being administered by the Safe Deposit & Trust Company of Baltimore.
Mr. Field died in May, 1917, leaving a will by which he bequeathed his residuary estate, valued at $26,398.30, to his brother, W. R. Mason Field, by whom it was received, less a collateral inheritance tax, from Charles H. Carter and R. E. Lee Marshall, executors of the will, in July, 1918. The other legacies under Mr. Field's will amounted to $19,550. In the settlement of the estates of Mr. and Mrs. Field no reservation was made to meet the contingency, mentioned in the receipt we have quoted, of a possible ascertainment in the final settlement of the estate of Marie von Lingen that the advancement made to Mr. Field, as executor of his wife's will, exceeded the real amount of her share.
On November 1, 1919, a distribution was made by the executors of Marie von Lingen's will among all of her residuary legatees. This was not a complete division of the estate, but it included a large proportion of the assets. Each of the legatees in Germany had previously received 12,875.01 marks on account of their respective shares, and those payments, added, at the time of the distribution, to relatively small amounts of German government and corporate bonds, and about 220,000 marks in cash, made a total of 295,000 marks for each legatee, less a deduction for an inheritance tax. In that distribution Mrs. Field was awarded 29,324.17 marks in German securities and 102,041.81 marks in cash, and her inheritance tax, paid by the executors, was 30,771.94 marks, making a total of 162,137.92 marks charged to her share of the estate, in addition to the American securities previously delivered, which at the time of their transfer were valued at 117,001.83 marks, as already noted. The total of the advancement in February, 1917, and the distribution in November, 1919, to Mrs. Field's estate, according to the values of the marks at those respective periods, approximated the amount distributed in 1919 to the other residuary legatees. Apparently no allowance was then made by the German executors for the fact that the American securities had a much higher value on November 1, 1919, than in February, 1917, as expressed in German marks, and that the cash belonging to the estate had a much lower value at the latter than at the former period, as measured by the American dollar standard. But it does not appear that the additional funds and other assets allotted to Mrs. Field's share in November, 1919, have ever passed out of the executors' possession. Because of the rapid decline of the mark in exchange value, the American securities, which were worth 117,000 marks in February, 1917, could have been sold for 621,200 marks on November 1, 1919, and 117,000 marks, which could be exchanged for $20,000 in American money or securities at the first-mentioned period, were the equivalent of only $3,766.96 on the latter date; the mark having fallen in value from seventeen to three and a fraction cents.
There were supplemental distributions to all of the residuary legatees under the will of Marie von Lingen on January 1 1920, and October 20, 1921, under which each legatee received 23,000 marks in German bonds and cash. On February 6, 1924, the executors filed a distribution account, which, according to a stipulation in the record, was the final settlement to which the receipt for the advancement in 1917 to the estate of Mrs. Field referred. In that account, for the purposes of equalization, the assets distributed to the residuary legatees were valued in marks and dollars, at the current rate of exchange, as of the respective general distribution periods at or prior to which they were delivered or paid. Thus the value of each of the other shares allotted on November 1, 1919, was $9,497.74, while the assets then awarded and theretofore advanced to Mrs. Field's estate were worth $25,741.84. The two later distributions amounted to 23,000 marks, or $303.62, for...
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