Morriss v. Garland's Adm'r

78 Va. 215, 1883 Va. LEXIS 31
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedDecember 13, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 78 Va. 215 (Morriss 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
Morriss v. Garland's Adm'r, 78 Va. 215, 1883 Va. LEXIS 31 (Va. 1883).

Opinions

Hinton, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

The facts, pleadings, and proceedings necessary to be stated for a clear understanding of the questions to be decided are as follows, viz: In November, 1861, Samuel Garland, Sr., died, leaving- a widow, but no children. He had, however, adopted his niece, Paulina B. Garland, who married Charles Y. Morriss, and towards her he stood, as the record amply shows, in loco parentis. He left a very large estate, consisting of lands, slaves, perishable property, and from §300,000 to §400,000 of the best paying stocks and corporate bonds in the country. His will was duly probated in the hustings court for the city of Lynchburg, on the 2d day of December, 1861.

The 5th clause of the will reads as follows: “ 5th. I will and direct my executors to set apart fifty thousand dollars’ worth, at par value, of my bank and other paying stocks and corporate bonds, paying at least six per cent., per annum, the interest or dividends whereof must be paid to my wife half yearly during her natural life, to be used as her own, without accountability on her part. At her death the stocks, bonds, &c., to pass to Charles Y. Morriss, in trust for the use of his wife, our adopted daughter, P. B. Morriss, and her children, as separate estate. The slaves, in the 4th clause, to pass in the same way—as separate estate, and to [218]*218the same trusts.” The 10th clause commences: “After the fulfillment of all the above and foregoing devises, I give,” ■&c.

And in the 17th and last clause, the testator, after de•claring his purpose not to die intestate as to any part of his present or future estate, makes Charles E. Slaughter and Samuel Garland, Jr., his residuary legatees, and appoints them his executors. They both qualified as such, but Charles E. Slaughter died soon afterwards, and John F. .Slaughter qualified as his administrator.

On the 5th day of March, 1862, Mary L. Garland executed a deed formally renouncing the will, which deed was duly admitted to record. Shortly thereafter Samuel Garland, Jr., instituted this suit. In the original bill he stated that the widow had renounced the will; that the estate was very large, consisting in part of “stocks in various ■corporate companies, State and corporate bonds, which, with the debts due to him by individuals, amounts to about the sum of $400,000, estimating the stock, bonds, &c, at their par value”; “that there was nothing in the condition of the testator’s estate to prevent the division of the real •estate and slaves, and the distribution of not less than $200,000 of the stocks and bonds”; and he prayed that in making up one-half of the personal estate to the widow, the special legacies and the residuary legacy should be ratably abated.

Samuel Garland, Jr., died soon after this bill was filed, when John F. Slaughter qualified as his executor, and also as administrator de bonis non with the will annexed of Samuel Garland, Sr. The said John F. Slaughter was also appointed trustee for several special -legatees, and he revived the suit, making himself a party in the various relations he had assumed. The original bill and bill of reviver were answered by the appellants, who took the ground that .the renunciation of the will did hot defeat or impair their [219]*219right in remainder after the widow’s death; that her legacy fell into the residuum, and her half of the personal estate must be made up from the residuum; and that if contribution from special legacies should become necessary, those after the ninth clause should be exhausted before the preferred legacies could be touched.

During the year ending January 31, 1862, there was distributed by Charles R. Slaughter, as executor, to the deferred legatees, $36,000 of corporate bonds and stocks, paying at least six per cent, per annum. Soon afterwards, that is to say, during the year ending on the 16th September, 1863, John F. Slaughter, administrator de bonis non, c. t. a., sold stocks and bonds of the same character, amounting to the sum of $20,445, and applied the sum of $19,500, part thereof, to the payment of money legacies. The same administrator de bonis non, &c., distributed bonds and stocks of his testator amounting to the sum of $218,716, during the year ending September 16,1864, and soon after, that is, between that date and January 26,1865, $26,300, one-half to the widow and one-half to the residuary legatees.

On the 18th of November, 1863, the court decreed that commissioners should lay off and assign to the widow dower in the lands of her deceased husband; that commissioners should value the household and kitchen furniture, silver plate, &c., which the widow had agreed to take at valuation; that the administrator de bonis non pay her $10,000 and deliver to her certain railroad bonds, of the value of $24,000; then appointed commissioners, and ordered them to “select and set apart from all the stocks and securities (other than individual debts) belonging to the estate of Samuel Garland, deceased, the most valuable of said stocks and securities to the amount of $50,000, according to their face value, and to allot and assign over one moiety thereof to the said Mary L. Garland, and make report thereof to the court.”

[220]*220These commissioners, in their report, which was dated January 9, 1864, and filed February 24, 1864, reported that they had selected and set apart the following stocks and bonds:

Merchants Bank stock, ------ $20,000
Citizens Savings Bank stock, - 8,000
Bank of the Commonwealth stock, - 10,000
Ya. and Tenn. R. R. bonds, enlarged mortgage, - 12,000
$50,000

They said nothing more as to the disposition of the stocks and bonds. It appears as a fact, however, that the administrator de bonis non had on the 8th day of January, 1864, the day preceding the date of the report, distributed the bank stocks mentioned, half to the widow and the other half to the residuary legatees. Of the Ya. and Tenn. railroad bonds, enlarged mortgage, he had distributed a much larger amount, half to the widow and the other half to the residuary legatees. The bank stocks soon became valueless. The railroad bonds were then and are now paying-8 per cent, per annum interest.

The report of the commissioners, from what cause the record does not disclose, lay in the office seemingly unnoticed until November 6th, 1874, when the appellants excepted to it so far as it might affect their rights, and so far as the action of the commissioners might be intended as a selection of the stocks mentioned in the fifth clause of the will, because the banks went into liquidation, and their stocks became worthless soon after the report was made,, and they had no notice when the commissioners proposed to execute the decree.

The court overruled the exceptions of the petitioners,, because the widow accepted the stock, when it was delivered to her, without objection, and its value had changed by the results of the war, and then decreed that the 5th [221]*221clause gave a specific legacy of $50,000 worth of the testator’s bank and other paying stocks to the use of the widow for her life, and of the stocks themselves to the appellant, Paulina B.

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Bluebook (online)
78 Va. 215, 1883 Va. LEXIS 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morriss-v-garlands-admr-va-1883.