60 Md. 296 | Md. | 1883
delivered the opinion of the Court.
It appears from this record that on the 16th day of February; 1883, a certain Margaret Heinlein died intestate in Baltimore County. Four days thereafter, viz., on the 20th day of February, the appellee filed in the Orphans’ Court of Baltimore County an application for letters of administration. That application is in the following language: “ Whereas, on the 16th day of February, 1883, a certain Margaret Heinlein died without leaving a will, and to the best of my knowledge and information, no relatives in this country; 1 therefore make application to your Honorable Court the grant of letters of administration to me.” This petition, it will be observed, does not aver that the intestate left any personal estate to be administered, and does not state that the intestate died in Baltimore County. Before the Orphans’ Court had acted on that petition, the appellant filed her petition in the same Court stating the death of the intestate in Baltimore County, on the 16th of February, 1883, and that she left personal property amounting to three thousand dollars, in said county, and also valuable real estate. It further stated that Margaret Heinlein left “ no child or descendant, nor father nor mother, nor other next of kin, either of the whole or half blood, nor any relations within this State but that the petitioner was a niece of George Heinlein, the intestate’s husband, who had died several years before his wife, and that as such niece she was en
The petition of the appellant praying for letters and stating the facts of the case was verified by petitioner’s oath. The petition of the appellee was not. Inasmuch as the Court refused to hear testimony and have the same written down that the petitioner might use the same on appeal, we must and will assume that the Orphans’ Court considered the facts established by the oath of the appellant attached to her petition, and that further testimony was unnecessary. The Court regarded the facts alleged as insufficient to give the appellant any legal right to claim administration, and regarding both applicants as entire strangers, committed letters to the appellee; and if the appellant has no superior right by reason of her having defrayed the expenses of burial, the Orphans’ Court.
The facts of the cases cited illustrate the propriety of this appellant, being next of kin by affinity, in the absence of persons standing in closer attitude, assuming to provide for the proper interment of the deceased. It was necessary, as Lord Ellenboeoug-h said in Tugwell vs. Heyman, that somebody should see to it, and as this appellant was niece by marriage to the deceased, it was eminently proper, if not her absolute duty, that she should have given the orders. Having done so, and having paid the expenses incurred, she is certainly, according to the authorities cited, entitled to reimbursement from the estate. She is therefore a creditor of the estate; and if she be the “largest creditor” so as to meet that requirement of the statute, we see no good reason why she shall not be entitled, as a matter of right, to the administration.
By the statute of the State funeral expenses, to a reasonable extent, are made a preferred charge upon the estate, because of the indispensable necessity for proper burial. Inasmuch, therefore, as the person who incurs that expense is a creditor of the estate, we cannot perceive why such creditor was rejected as not being within the meaning of the law, which accords administration as a matter of right to the “ largest creditor,” in the absence of kindre'd who are regarded as having prior right. The only reason why a creditor should, in such case, be enti
In Newcombe vs. Beloe, et al., 45 L. J., (P. & M.,) 37, it appears that the deceased left a will appointing executors. The deceased also left a daughter, who employed a linen draper, Newcombe, to take charge of and provide for the funeral. He did so, on her assurance he should
The same view of the law was taken by Dr. Lusiungton In the Goods of C. Spitty, 16 Jur., 92. There the wife had a separate estate. The person who had paid the funeral expenses of the wife, took proceedings against the husband, and caused him to be cited to show cause why he should not administer. The husband appeared and contended that he could only be sued personally; but the Court adjudged that the plaintiff was a creditor of the wife’s estate, entitled to be heard in that capacity. In that case it is proper to note that it was done notwithstanding the plaintiff had for several years been endeavoring to get the husband to pay the bill.
Manifestly the same reason underlies the rule, existing in England and established by our statute, which accords administration to some creditor when kindred fail or neglect. There is no language in the law of either place restricting its application to persons becoming creditors in the life-time of the decedent. Each class has the same kind of interest, and there seems to be both wisdom and equity in the English construction of the word creditor in that connection, and no good reason appears to exist why we should not adopt the same view. The appellee’s counsel
Order reversed, and cause remanded.