242 Pa. 69 | Pa. | 1913
Opinion by
This is an appeal from the decree of the Superior Court, reversing a decree of the Orphans’ Court of Lancaster County. The opinion of the Superior Court conclusively demonstrates the correctness of its decree, and shows the wholly indefensible position as well as the error in the conclusion of the learned judge of the Orphans’ Court. It needs nothing more than a brief statement of the material facts to convict the Orphans’ Court of palpable error.
The surviving executor of Charles W. Metzger, deceased, filed an account in the register’s office of Lancaster County by which there appeared a balance for distribution of over $32,000. By an agreement of all the parties concerned there was included in this balance the sum of $238.37 which the executor had collected as rent for certain real estate of the testator. In the adjudication the Orphans’ Court awarded the rentals to Mary E. Metzger and Clara Rogers, the latter being appellee in the present proceedings. The executor filed no exception to the decree, but Levi B. Smith, the appellant here, and other residuary legatees, objected to the award of the rentals to Metzger and Rogers, and filed an exception alleging that the court erred in not awarding the fund, representing the rentals, to the exceptants. The learned judge of the Orphans’ Court filed an elaborate opinion in which he overruled the exception, and on October 26,1905, confirmed the adjudication absolutely. Smith and the other exceptants appealed from the decree to the Superior Court and. assigned as error that part of the decree awarding the rentals to Metzger and Rogers. In an opinion filed February 25, 1907, the Superior Court reversed the decree of the Orphans’ Court and awarded the fund in controversy to the residuary legatees: Smith v. Metzger, 32 Pa. Superior Ct. 596. The record was remitted to the Orphans’ Court “with directions to make distribution in accordance with the foregoing opinion.”
As suggested above, a mere statement of the facts convicts the Orphans’ Court of manifest error in refusing to obey the mandate of the Superior Court and distribute the fund to the residuary legatees. The fund was included in the executor’s account, it was awarded by the decree of distribution made by the Orphans’ Court, this decree was reversed by the Superior Court, and the fund was directed by that court to be paid to the residuary legatees. It must be conceded that the
The learned judge of the Orphans’ Court offers as a justification of his refusal to enforce the decree of the Superior Court that “it has been definitely settled by a decree of the Supreme Court that Mary E. Metzger and Clara Rogers are the devises” of the land producing the fund in dispute, and that, therefore, the residuary legatees to whom it was awarded by the Superior Court are not entitled to it. The decree of this Court referred to by the learned judge was entered in the partition proceedings in Metzger’s Est., 222 Pa. 276. The learned Orphans’ Court judge overlooked the conclusive effect of the decree of the Superior Court which was not and could not be impeached by our decree which was entered in another and collateral proceeding. It is true
The decree of the Superior Court reversing the decree of the Orphans’ Court is affirmed at the cost of the appellant.