56 Ga. 146 | Ga. | 1876
The defendant in error, Peacock, applied for letters of administration on the estate of a child two years old, his nephew, who was killed by the Augusta and Summerville Railroad Company, alleging that the child had personal property in the county of Richmond. The railroad company objected on the ground that the deceased left no creditors in Georgia, nor any property at all, and that deceased was killed by the road
We think that the railroad company had no right to be heard before the ordinary. If we hold that it might be heard to contest this right of administration because it might, perchance, be sued by the administrator, the effect would be to open the doors of the court, of ordinary to every person who suspected he might be charged with being a debtor, and to allow him to contest his debt before that court. The facts here show that this company has no interest in this estate. No cause of action exists against it. If this administrator shall sue the company he will pay the costs for his trouble, and get nothing for his pains. This applicant alleges that the child has property in the county of Richmond, and was domiciled there when líe was killed. The company had no right to contest these points in the judgment of this court. In the case cited from Indiana, 26 Indiana, 477, it seems that the action was being prosecuted when the motion was made to revoke the letters. It is not, therefore, exactly this case. In 32 Georgia Reports, 299, the fact that the deceased had, apparently, title to a lot of land in the county, was held sufficient for the grant of letters; and no point was made on the right of the party in possession to object, therefore that case does not rule that such an objector can be heard. In 22 Georgia Reports, 358, this court lays stress upon the fact that the object of the grant of letters to a non-resident was to sue his estate, not to enable it to sue anybody else, and therefore affirm the judgment of the
Judgment affirmed.