Baldwin Memorial Episcopal Church v. Rice

On the 15th day of April, 1873, a creditor’s bill was filed in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for a sale of the real estate of William Rice, deceased, for the purpose of paying his debts, alleging an insufficiency of the personal estate m the hands of the administrator for that purpose. ⁶⁸⁵ On the 7th of January following, a decree in the usual form was passed, and Andrew C. Trippe was appointed trustee to make the sale. A portion of the real estate was sold, to-wit, sixty acres, more or less, for the sum of $1,225.62. This sale was duly reported and ratified by the Court on the 7th of July, 1874, and shortly afterwards the case was referred to the auditor to state an account. Nothing further appears to have been done towards the settlement of this estate, until the 5th of March, 1895, when a statement of claims and an auditor’s account was filed and from which it appears that the sum ot $969.51 still remained due and unpaid to the creditors of Rice.

On the 7th of March, 1895, the appellant, the Baldwin Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, of Anne Arundel County, filed a petition in the case, and after reciting the original proceedings, alleged in substance that all of the claims against the estate have been fully paid and were paid in full by one Reginald W. Baldwin, m his lifetime, who acted as the attorney of Trippe, the trustee; that Baldwin borrowed from the petitioner the sum of $1,000 for this purpose and applied it to the payment and satisfaction of these claims. It further states that the money thus borrowed was to be secured by a lien on the real estate remaining unsold by the trustee ; that the widow of Rice and her children were informed of this indebtedness, and to the first of January, 1893, paid the annual interest of sixty dollars to the petitioner. It further alleges that inasmuch as the deficit was paid by the money loaned by the petitioner and applied for that purpose, it is entitled to be subrogated to the rights of the claimants, as against the real estate unsold by the trustee. The prayer of the petition is for a sale of the real estate for the payment of the petitioner’s claim and for general relief.

This petition was answered by Mr. Trippe, the trustee, who disclaimed any knowledge of the loan, and by the widow and children of William Rice, deceased. Testimony was taken, and, after a hearing of the case, the petition was dismissed. It is from the order dismissing the petition that this appeal has been taken. ⁶⁸⁶ The Court said : “ That the only question presented on this appeal is whether the appellant has made such a case as to entitle it to relief by the remedy of subrogation, and this depends upon whether its money paid the indebtedness which is alleged to have remained unpaid, after the application of the proceeds of the sale of the real estate in the hands of the trustee. We have carefully examined the testimony as disclosed by the record, and we fully concur in the views expressed by the learned Judge in the Court below, ‘ that it is not possible from the