84 Va. 181 | Va. | 1887
delivered the opinion of the court.
It appears from the record that Samuel Garland, Sr., who was a citizen of Virginia and resident of Lynchburg, died there in 1861 seized and possessed of a large estate, real and personal, in Virginia, and also of a large estate, real and personal, in the State of Mississippi, the latter consisting of two large plantations called “ Barrens” and “ Tudor Hall,” respectively, in hinds county, Mississippi, and a third large plantation in Coahoma county, Mississippi, and of slaves, farm-stock, and implements, provisions, furniture, and provender on the said three plantations needful for and used in their cultivation. The said Samuel Garland, Sr., left a will, disposing of all his estate in Mississippi, as well as in Virginia, and, in express terms, declaring that he did not intend to die intestate as to any part of his estate. He named and appointed in his will Charles B. Slaughter and Samuel Garland, Jr., both citizens of Virginia, to be executors of his will, and by whom he manifestly intended that his whole estate in both States should be administered. His will was duly proved and admitted to probate in the hustings court of the city of Lynchburg in December, 1861, and the two executors named therein successively qualified in Virginia as such, and both of them died on or before September, 1862. Whereupon the appellant, John B. Slaughter, a citizen of Virginia, qualified in Virginia as administrator de bonis non c. t. a. of the said Samuel Garland, Sr., deceased, in October, 1862; and he is now, and has been since December, 1862, the sole personal representative of said Samuel Garland, Sr., in Virginia. NTeither of the said executors so named nor said John B. Slaughter ever qualified in Mississippi as personal representative of said testator, owing, probably, to the condition of war in which the country then was.
The ninth clause of the will of Samuel Garland, Sr., deceased, is as follows: “Myfavorite brother, B. Garland, raised by me, and long a resident of Mississippi, is and has for a long time past, been embarrassed in debt by losses of trade in 1887, and liability as surety for others; it might be unsafe to devise property to him absolutely. I therefore set apart in trust, in the hands of my executors, for the benefit of my said brother, either of my plantations in Hinds county, called ‘Barrens,’ or ‘ Tudor Hall,’ whichever he may choose, and forty slaves in families, say about twenty-five hands, balance head of families, children, and house servants, to be selected by him, with provender, house and kitchen furniture, plantation tools, &c., oxen, hogs, &c., to make a complete estate. The profits of the estate is set apart for his, B. Garland’s, use under his superin
The statute law of Mississippi peremptorily required the said William H. Garland, executor of Burr Garland, deceased, to make prompt and final settlement of the accounts of his said testator, as administrator, t. t. a. of Samuel Garland, Sr., deceased, as aforesaid; and in obedience to this requirement, the said William H. Garland, executor of the will of Burr Garland deceased, proceeded to make his final settlement of his testator’s said administration account with the estate of Sanrael Garland, Sr., deceased. To tlfis end, and to give this settlement a finality and judicial authority, which it could not have, if made ex parte only, he invoked the aid of the proper court of equity; and filed his petition in 1872, as executor of Burr Garland, deceased, in the chancery court of the second district of Hinds county, Mississippi, (which had succeeded to the jurisdiction of the probate court) praying that court to make final settlement of the accounts of his testator, Burr Garland, as administrator, c. t. a. of Samuel Garland, Sr., deceased—filing as a part of his petition, a copy of said Samuel Garland’s will; and giving the names and address of all parties interested in said settlement and under said will, praying that they be made parties to the proceeding; and among these parties were the appellees, Charles Y. Morriss, trustee of his wife and children, said Paulina B. Morris, and said Mary L. Garland. Publication was ordered and duly made against each of said parties, and in addition, the clerk of the said court mailed to each of them a certified copy of the said order and publication; and among others, to the said Morriss, trustee, and Paulina B. Morriss, and Mary L. Garland; and there is no denial that the same were received by them; nor any intimation that they were not received.
Charles Y. Morriss, who, as heforesaid, had qualified in Vir-' ginia as administrator c. t. a. of Burr Garland, deceased, filed a petition, for his benefit as such administrator, in the suit of Garland v. Garland pending in the circuit court of the city of Lynchburg, claiming that Burr Garland had acquired, by purchase and assignment, the legacies left by Samuel Garland, Sr.’s Avill to the children of Nicholas Garland, and praying for a decree directing appellant, J. F. Slaughter, administrator of Samuel Garland, Sr., deceased, to pay to him, the petitioner, as administrator of Burr Garland, the full amount of said legacies. At this juncture Slaughter, administrator c. t. a. of Samuel Garland, Sr., deceased, (and appellant here) being unable to obtain payment in Mississippi of the ascertained and adjudged indebtedness of Burr Garland to the estate of his testator, Samuel Garland, Sr.; and, in order to protect the estate of his testator from the claim asserted against it by the petition of Charles Y. Morriss, filed in the suit of Garland v. Garland, and it being impossible adequately to so protect it by a simple answer to the said petition of Charles Y. Morriss, administrator of Burr Garland (which was lost from the papers in the cause), filed his hill in chancery in the circuit court of Lynch-burg against the said Charles Y. Morriss, administrator of
To this bill the appellee demurred and answered. He demurred, first, for want of jurisdiction in the Virginia court; second, for want of necessary parties. The answer sets up the main defence, that respondent is not bound by the decree of the Mississippi court in a proceeding to which he was not a party as administrator; that as administrator of Burr Garland in Virginia, he cannot be held liable for Burr Garland’s devastavit as Mississippi executor of Samuel Garland, Sr.; that neither he as trustee for P. B. Morriss, nor said P. B. Morriss, is bound by the said decree and settlement in Mississippi, because there was no personal service on them; that the stock on the “Tudor Hall” farm remaining at the death of Burr Garland, and the surplus profits of that farm, after deducting a decent support for Burr Garland, passed to Charles Y. Morriss, trustee for P. B. Morriss, as residuary legatee in the will of Samuel Garland, Sr.; and that the assets in the hands of Burr Garland’s administrator, the said C. Y. Morriss, should be applied to and belong to the said P. B. Morriss as part of her legacy.
Hpon the hearing, the circuit court without in so many words sustaining the demurrer, dismissed the bill with costs solely for want of any right of action in the appellant, alleging as the ground of its action that the complainant, as administrator of Samuel Garland in Virginia, could not hold the Vir
This is not a suit against- the administrator of a decedent of one State to enforce against him a judgment or decree recovered against a different administrator of the same decedent in another State. The decree sought to be enforced was not a decree against an administrator—it is a decree obtained against Burr Garland’s executor in Mississippi; and the object of the bill is to enforce that decree against the AGrginia administrator with the will annexed of Burr Garland. Substantially and virtually in law, the bill is to enforce against Burr Garland’s Virginia executor (C. Y. Morriss, administrator c. t. a.,) a decree previously obtained against Burr Garland’s Mississippi executor. An administrator with the will annexed is substantially the same as the executor named in the will; and he has the same powers and is subject to the same duties and liabilities. Between executors of the same decedent in different jurisdictions, there is a privity derived from or through the will of the testator, and a judgment or decree against either is evidence against the other, and may be enforced against each, (see Hill v. Tucker, 13 Howard, 458,) and is sufficient to ground a suit or action on against either executor. An administrator with the will annexed is, in legal contemplation, executor of that will, and a decree against a domiciliai’y executor binds every executor of the same will in every jurisdiction.
The basis and corner stone of the appellant’s bill is the decree of the Mississippi court, and the settlement made there, ascertaining the indebtedness of Burr Garland to the estate of appellant’s testator, and putting the same under control of appellant for distribution, in Virginia, to those entitled under the will of Samuel Garland, Sr. The decree of the Mississippi court ordering the ancillary administrator, c. t. a. to pay, and putting him under a legal obligation to pay over an ascei’tained and adjudged indebtedness of Burr Garland, to the
As evidence of an ascertained indebtedness, this decree of the Mississippi court must be taken as final and conclusive in any court of any State. In matters of local character, exclusively within the cognizance and jurisdiction of the courts'of any State—such as the accounts of personal representatives and the administration of assets of decedents within the jurisdiction of that State, no other State courts can consider, or settle, or revise, or reverse the settlement made by a State court of competent jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties. The decree of the Mississippi court must be accepted as final and conclusive evidence of the fact and amount of indebtedness by Burr Garland, the Mississippi administrator.of Samuel Garland, to Samuel Garland’s estate. It did not undertake to distribute it, nor to determine who are entitled to receive it under Samuel Garland’s will, but decreed it to be paid over to the Virginia domiciliary executor, to be by him distributed to those entitled according to the declared intention of the testator. And this is in accordance to well recognized and every day practice, to the end that there may be one homogeneous administration, and that the creditors and legatees may get their dues without pursuing two representatives in difieren! jurisdictions.
The appellant is competent to prosecute this debt due his testator’s estate by the authority of the Virginia court appoint
The circuit court erred in dismissing the complainant’s bill, and the decree complained of is erroneous, and is reversed and annulled, with costs to the appellant; but without prejudice to to any right of action which Paulina B. Morriss may have in this or in an independent suit; and the cause will be remanded to the circuit court with leave to the appellant to re-instate his bill, or to amend and make all parties deemed requisite.
Decree reversed.