Devereux's Estate

50 Pa. D. & C. 509
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County
DecidedJune 9, 1944
DocketNo. 2; no. 346
StatusPublished

This text of 50 Pa. D. & C. 509 (Devereux's Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Devereux's Estate, 50 Pa. D. & C. 509 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1944).

Opinion

Bolger, J.,

This opinion applies to the companion trust in the estate of Annie L. Devereux, deceased, April term, 1905, no. 845, with the same force and effect as if filed therein.

The supplemental adjudication disposed of the substantive question of who was entitled to excess income. Exceptions thereto were filed by the trustee and by the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company. The adjudication in dismissing the claim of the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company phrased the award as follows:

“The excess undistributed income is awarded to those of the next of kin who are living and to the personal representatives of those who may be deceased in accordance with the intestate laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in effect at the date of the death of John L. Devereux, deceased, to the extent that the family lines, the identity of the next of kin, are known, and to the extent that distribution is not possible or next of kin cannot be located after due effort, to be retained by the accountant for further accounting or other appropriate legal proceedings.”

The accountant was also directed to file a schedule of distribution. Exceptions were filed and were dismissed and the adjudication confirmed absolutely in an opinion reported in 48 D. & C. 491. Thereafter, upon notice to all parties in interest, the auditing judge held a hearing for the purpose of giving opportunity to additional next of kin to prove their claims in accordance with the reservation in his supplemental adjudication. This hearing was held on October 6, 1943. Additional parties appeared and proved their claims. Mr. Reilly then offered evidence in support of the claim-of the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company. He said:

[511]*511“In making this offer of proof I appreciate what counsel has said about the purpose of this hearing being to have testimony as to who these claimants were who are collateral heirs, but I call your Honor’s attention that this is the first time that this matter has been before you that any testimony has been taken or any claims presented which was adverse in fact to the claimed rights of the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company.”

Objection to this offer was sustained. The present exceptions are to this ruling of the auditing judge.

Mr. Reilly’s comment was incorrect. From the record it appears that at the first audit, November 7, 1940, the auditing judge asked Mr. Reilly if he wanted to be heard on the merits of the case (p. 4). He replied that the cemetery company had no standing unless it were appointed substituted trustee. At the second, audit on May 4,1942, which was held after the guardian and trustee ad litem had partially conducted the search for possible next of kin, the appearance of Mr. Reilly for the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company is noted, the audit was devoted entirely to a discussion of who were the next of kin, and appearances for several of them were entered by Maurice A. Hogeland, Esq., and Charles D. Smeltzer, Esq. No objection was made to these appearances. Furthermore, the report of the guardian ad litem named several definite next of kin and recommended further delay in order to ascertain the existence of other possible relatives. Also on page 6 of the notes of that audit, Mr. Smeltzer pointed out to the court that the testator named many of his next of kin in pecuniary legacies in his will. On July 1, 1942, an adjudication was filed in each estate, presumably after informal settlement or agreement of counsel. This agreement appears to have been nullified, by the filing of exceptions. On July 11, 1942, Mr. Reilly, as attorney for the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company, filed exceptions to the notation in the adjudication of his ap[512]*512pearance for the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company “for the reason the said Laurel Hill Cemetery Company did not appear in its own right in anywise, but that the cemetery company appeared only as ‘proposed substituted trustee’

On November 27, 1942, the exceptions were sustained pro forma upon request of the auditing judge, and the accounts referred back to him for his further attention.

On January 30, 1943, a supplemental adjudication was filed. To this Mr. Reilly filed exceptions on February 15, 1943, as attorney for the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company, proposed substituted trustee, and separate exceptions for the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company generally to the action of the auditing judge in disregarding the unsigned and unauthenticated statement of the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company reflecting certain financial aspects of its operation. Here we have for the first time on February 15, 1943, the first general appearance in the case on behalf of the Laurel Hill Cemetery Company. All of these exceptions were dismissed.

It is true that the exceptant did not appear generally until it filed exceptions to the supplemental adjudication. However, it sat by after receiving notice of the audit, appeared specially, and expressly refused to produce evidence when called upon by the auditing judge in 1940. It possibly relied upon the theory adverted to in the court’s opinion that it had no standing because it was merely the agent of the trustee in the care of the cemetery lots, and therefore not a genuine cestui que trust. However, it is bound by its election. The accountant and the court went further than they were required in protecting the rights of the exceptant. The former not only gave full notice to it, but presented the exceptant’s case ably and forcefully. Full opportunity was offered, therefore, to exceptant to present its case. There must be finality to all pro[513]*513ceedings. The action of the court en banc in dismissing the exceptions and confirming the adjudication marked the conclusion of the court’s disposition of the merits of exceptant’s claim.

The hearing of October 6,1943, did not constitute a reopening of the case. The auditing judge had lost, all jurisdiction over the exceptant’s claim when the court en banc dismissed exceptions. Therefore, he had no power to reopen the case. The hearing was the “other legal proceedings” referred to in the auditing judge’s supplemental adjudication, at which time the identity of the next of kin was to be ascertained so that their shares could be awarded and the amount of them set forth in the schedule of distribution. It is clear to us that the auditing judge’s action in making this reservation in the adjudication was proper. We could dismiss these exceptions now by pointing out that no claim of impropriety was made with respect thereto in appropriate exceptions to the supplemental adjudication. However, we will answer this argument on its merits.

This court’s practice, being modeled largely upon that of courts of chancery, vests in the auditing judge the widest latitude in the conduct of the audit of an account and in the manner of disposing of the issues presented. In the exercise of the jurisdiction of the orphans’ court, its authority is plenary, embracing all the powers of a court of chancery: Wilson, Mayor, v. Board of Directors of City Trusts et al., 324 Pa. 545.

In First National Bank of Pittsburgh v. Baird, 300 Pa. 92, at page 101, the Supreme Court interpreted the Additional Defendants Act of 1929. Since audit proceedings in this court are of a similar composite character, i. e., the trial of several issues in one proceeding, we believe a very close analogy is presented. There the court held that the trial court’s power to control procedure is limited only by the constitutional requirement of according full and fair hearing to all parties. It [514]

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Bluebook (online)
50 Pa. D. & C. 509, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/devereuxs-estate-paorphctphilad-1944.