Garland's Adm'r v. Garland's Adm'r

24 S.E. 505, 2 Va. Dec. 351
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedApril 2, 1896
StatusPublished

This text of 24 S.E. 505 (Garland's Adm'r v. Garland's Adm'r) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garland's Adm'r v. Garland's Adm'r, 24 S.E. 505, 2 Va. Dec. 351 (Va. 1896).

Opinion

Cardwell, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This case is a sequel to the case of Garland’s Adm’r v. Garland’s Adm’r, twice appealed to this court. 84 Va. 181, 4 S. E. 334; 87 Va. 758, 13 S. E. 478. The facts out of which the litigation arose are so fully set out in the opinions of this court on the former appeals that it will be needless to repeat many of them here.

On the first appeal it was decided that, as to the amount of the indebtedness of Burr Garland to Samuel Garland, Sr. ’s, estate, the Mississippi decree was final and conclusive ; but that decision was without prejudice to any right of action which Paulina B. Morriss might have in this or in an independent suit, and the cause was remanded to the circuit court of Lynchburg, with leave to the appellant to amend his bill, and make all parties deemed requisite parties to the cause. In February, 1888, the plaintiff amended his bill, making M. J. .Day, sergeant of Lynch-burg, and, as such, administrator d. b. n. c. t. a. of Burr Garland in Virginia, to whom the estate had been committed on the death of Charles Y. Morriss, the executor, and Paulina B. Morriss. and her children, and the representatives of those who had died, parties defendant. Mrs. Mary L. Garland, widow of Samuel Garland, Sr., who had been sued with Charles Y. Morriss, as surety on his bond as executor of Burr Garland, and Mrs. Morriss and her children all answered the original and amended bill, averring and insisting, for Mrs. Garland, that she was entitled to one-half of the profits realized from [353]*353the real estate of the testator in Mississippi, known as “Barrens,” and the personal property thereon, from the death of the testator in 1861 to the assignment to Mrs. Garland of her one-half of the estate of the testator, Samuel Garland, Sr., in 1864, and to the proceeds from the sales of certain cotton, corn, and other personal property that had been allotted to her in the division, and sold by Burr Garland, administrator c. t. a. of Samuel Garland, Sr., in Mississippi ; and claiming for Mrs. Morriss and her children the surplus profits from the Tudor Hall estate in Hinds county, Miss., selected by Burr Garland under the ninth clause of the testator’s will, it being averred that these profits and the'proceeds from the sale of the cotton, etc., had been carried, without discrimination, into Burr Garland’s administration accounts, and formed a part of the balance of §64,130.88 found against him in the final settlement, and that Burr Garland had rendered to these claimants no account of such profits, or of the sales made by him, and that his estate was therefore still indebted to them for these profits and the proceeds from the sale of Mrs. Garland’s property, alleged to have been made by him, and that there was no outstanding indebtedness of the estate of Samuel Garland, Sr., — and they prayed that an account be taken of the profits, and of the proceeds from the sale of the cotton, etc., that had been carried into the administration accounts of Burr Garland : that an account of the indebtedness of Burr Garland’s estate, and of the priorities thereof, be taken and reported, as well as an account of any outstanding debts of the estate of Samuel Garland, Sr. ; and that what these respondents are entitled to should be decreed directly to them, and not to the administrator of Samuel Garland, Sr. M. J. Day, late sergeant of Lynchburg, to whom the trusteeship of Paulina B. Morriss and her children had also been committed, answered the bill, as administrator of Burr Garland, and as trustee for Mrs. Morriss and children, relying and insisting on the averments and defenses in the answers of Mrs. Garland and of Mrs. Morriss and her children, [354]*354and on former exceptions which had been taken to the commissioner’s report, and praying also for an account of the indebtedness of Burr Garland, and the priorities thereof, especially the indebtedness to Mrs. Morriss and her children and to Mrs. Mary L. Garland, and that the court would determine the rights of all parties in and to the estate of Burr Garland. These respondents also prayed that the cause instituted by Samuel Garland, Sr.’s, executor against Mary L. Garland and others in May, 1862, and this cause, instituted by John F. Slaughter, administrator, d. b. n. c. t. a. of Samuel Garland, Sr., against Burr Garland’s administrator, etc., in September, 1880, be heard together, and that the estates of Samuel Garland, Sr., and of Burr Garland, both deceased, be administered under the control and supervision of the court.

On these pleadings, the ninth clause of the will of Samuel Garland, Sr., was to be construed, and it was agreed between the parties, before proceeding to take accounts, to submit to the court the construction of the ninth clause ; John F. Slaughter, administrator, contending that, under this ninth clause, Burr Garland took a life estate in the corpus of the legacy, and that he was entitled absolutely to the profits, and that the profits should be subjected to the payment, in part, of the decree for $61,130.88 against Burr Garland, rendered in the Mississippi court. The lower court decided that Burr Garland took the profits absolutely, and that the profits were liable to all his debts alike, whether Contracted for his support or not, and that the corpus of this legacy passed in remainder to Mrs. Morriss and her children. It was from the decree of the lower court deciding this question that the second named cause came again to this court on appeal. 87 Va. 758, 13 S. E. 478. On this appeal this court reversed the lower court, and held that, under the ninth clause of Samuel Garland, Sr.’s, will, Burr Garland took no absolute estate, but only a qualified right to a support from the profits, subject to no liabilities except for supplies for support, and that the unexpended profits at his death passed to [355]*355the remaindermen. Id. Deferring to the former decision (84 Va. 181, 4 S. E. 334), and to the decree of the Mississippi court, that the executor of Burr Garland in Mississippi should transmit to Virginia $64,130.88, this court further said £ ‘that the decree of that court 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. ’ ’ The decision of the lower court was reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings ; and the circuit court, by its decree at the May term, 1893, referred the cause to Commissioner Charles H. Sackett, —Commissioner Bocock having died, — to execute the orders of account theretofore entered in the cause, among which accounts to be stated was an account of all debts of the estate of Burr Garland, deceased, and their priorities, if any. The claims of Mrs. Garland, and Mrs. Morriss and her children were asserted before Commissioner Sackett only on behalf of Mrs. Morriss and children, as Mrs. Garland had assigned to them her claim, ‘ ‘to be treated as if for profits, as specified in the ninth clause of the will of the testator, Samuel Garland, Sr.”

These claimants contended that, as the whole of the profits arising from the Mississippi estate, from the death of the testator in 1861 to the assignment to Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
24 S.E. 505, 2 Va. Dec. 351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garlands-admr-v-garlands-admr-va-1896.