Succession of Taylor

28 La. Ann. 367
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 15, 1876
DocketNo. 5003
StatusPublished

This text of 28 La. Ann. 367 (Succession of Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Succession of Taylor, 28 La. Ann. 367 (La. 1876).

Opinions

Wyly, J.

Milton Taylor died leaving a succession in Mason county, Kentucky, the place of his domicile, a succession in Hamilton county, Ohio, and a succession in this State. On the thirteenth of March, 1870, John I. Rickey, the dative executor from Hamilton county, Ohio, caused the will of the deceased to be probated in the Third District Court, and applied to be appointed dative executor thereof in this State. An opposition was filed to his appointment by P. B. Eouke, public administrator, who claimed the office himself. The court appointed him, and, on appeal, the action of the court below was affirmed. See tho case reported in 23 An. 22.

On the twenty-fifth of July, 1871, Mary Jane Taylor, wife of Milton Rodgers, was recognized as sole heir of Milton Taylor, deceased, and was ordered to be put in possession of all the property and effects of the succession, “ on the said Mary Jane Taylor Rodgers giving bond with. good and solvent security in the amount delivered to her by said public administrator, conditioned as the law provides in such cases, reserving: to any heir at law his right to set up any claim he may have against said succession.”

In the application of Mrs. Rodgers, and in this order, the will of Milton Taylor, which the court had ordered executed, was entirely ignored— no reference whatever was made to it.

On the third of August, 1871, Phoebe Ann Duneanson and John James-Taylor, claiming also to be the children of Milton Taylor, prayed to be recognized as heirs and put in possession of two-thirds of the property of said succession. Their application was opposed by Mary Jane Rodgers. The controversy was finally settled in favor of said applicants,, this court holding that “ the evidence which establishes the status of the [368]*368appellee as the child, of the deceased, shows with equal clearness that the petitioners herein are also his children.” See the case reported in 24 An. 326, decided in May, 1872.

On the twelfth of March, 1872, Thomas J. Throop, “ as administrator with the will annexed,” representing the estate of the deceased, by appointment of the probate court of Mason county, Kentucky, and as attorney in fact for Mason County Court, one of the legatees under the will, brought this suit against the public administrator, appointed dative executor of the will, and against Mary Jane Rodgers, Phoebe Ann Pun-•eanson, and John James Taylor, claiming to be heirs at law of the deceased, and he prays that the decree of the thirteenth of March, 1870, -■ordering the execution of Milton Taylor’s will, be carried into effect; tliat the judgment-recognizing said pretended heirs at law, and ordering them to be put in possession of the succession, be set aside and annulled; that ■the public administrator be'dismissed from the office.of dative executor for failing to file annual accounts, and for failing to deposit the funds of the succession in bank according to law; that he be condemned to pay-ten per cent interest and twenty per cent damages on the amount of the funds not so dexoosited; that petitioner be recognized .and put in possession of the succession; and if from any cause this relief' bo refused, that petitioner have judgment against the succession for the amount of the 'legacy to the Mason County Court, represented herein by petitioner.

The court below dismissed the suit on the peremptory exceptions filed by the defendants, and, on appeal, its judgment was reversed and the case remanded for trial. See the decision reported in 25 An. 446. The grounds for the action, as stated in the petition, are: The petitioner is administrator “ with the will annexed ” of the succession at the domicile •of the deceased in Kentucky, and that the succession in this State is an'■cillary to that, and by the laws of Kentucky his power as administrator is the same as that of executor with seizin; that the'judgments he seeks 'to annul were obtained by fraud and false testimony; that these pretended heirs were adulterous bastards of the deceased, and that their mother was a slave, and by the laws of Kentucky and Louisiana they are incapable of inheriting from the deceased; that the property in Kentucky is insufficient to pay the special legacies in the will, especially the legacy due the Mason County Court (which is capable of inheriting by the laws of Kentucky); that the public administrator has failed to account annually, according to law, and he has failed to deposit the funds of the succession in bank.

After the case was remanded, Mary Jane Rodgers, Phoebe Ann Dun-■eanson, and John James Taylor answered, and after denying generally •and specially the allegations of plaintiff, they “ admit that they are three-fourths white and one-fourth colored, as acknowledged in 1869 by their [369]*369father, Milton Taylor, in the memorándum, to his will; they admit they are the natural children, duly acknowledged, of Milton Taylor, and that .their mother was originally purchased by their father, but was treated kindly by him as the mother of his children born in his house; they admit that they were bom in Kentucky, but were educated by their father and brought up in Ohio, where, they resided the greater part df their lives and where they now reside, and where their father, Milton Taylor, made his will and died, having resided there, much of. his time before his death. Respondents deny that their father had any other heirs, and they allege that in his will of 1869 he provided liberally for them and their children, but that those dispositions are void in Louisiana, and in said will of 1869 and the memorandum thereto, their said father duly acknowledged respondents as his natural children, besides having all their lives previously to 1869 acknowledged them in his letters, acts, and all kinds of private writings. Respondents aver that the property of their father, Milton Taylor, in Louisiana, is real property, and that the clause, in so far as it disposes of real property in favor of persons whom plaintiff claims to represent, is null and void, for this, to wit:

First — That the bequest in trust to the Mason County Court is contrary to the law of Louisiana prohibiting substitutions and ftclei com-missa.

Second — That the judges of the county court have no interest proper in the bequest, and the cestui que trust, or the real beneficiaries, are not designated or described with sufficient certainty.

Third — The language of the bequest is imperative, that the commissioners shall be appointed and the objects of the charity designated (which is even not alleged to have been done), and therefore the trust is prohibited.

Fourth — Not being residuary legatees, the justices of the county court can not take the legacy if it be impossible to execute the trust upon real property in Louisiana.

Wherefore respondents pray that the order, which was ex parte as to them, ordering the execution of the will of Milton Taylor, so far as it relates to real property, or its proceeds, in Louisiana, be annulled; that respondents be recognized as natural children of Milton Taylor, duly acknowledged, and put in possession as heirs as against the plaintiff, according to the decrees heretofore rendered in the promises; that plaintiffs demand be rejected with costs, etc. ■ •

After the case had been regularly submitted on the issues stated and ■on the several oppositions to the two accounts filed by the public administrator, which will be more fully noted hereafter, the court dismissed, for want of jurisdiction, the demand of Thomas J.

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Bluebook (online)
28 La. Ann. 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-taylor-la-1876.