Cook v. Carr

Cochran, J., delivered the opinion of this Court: This appeal was taken by George W. Cook, from an order of the Orphans Court for Baltimore city, refusing to him, and granting to Henry Carr, letters of administration on the estate of Sarah Ann Wigart, deceased. The appellant and Virginia Carr, the wife of the appellee, stand in equal degree of relationship to the decedent, both being grand-children, and the question as to the right of the appellant to be appointed administrator, is the only one presented. The determination of this question depends upon the construction to be placed upon the provisions of our testamentary laws, by which the right of administration is fixed and regulated. It was not contended that the alleged indebtedness of the appellant to the decedent’s estate, pre ⁴ vented, the right of administration from vesting in him, but that it constituted a ground upon which the Orphans Court was authorized to exercise a discretion, as to which of the petitioners letters of administration should be granted.

In our opinion, this view of the case is erroneous. It is true, that in a case where two or more persons are equally entitled to letters .of administration, the Court may, in its discretion, determine to which of them the letters shall go, but its power, in that respect, results from its obligation to grant letters of administration to some one of the persons thus entitled, and not from the circumstances by which its choice may be determined. Although the Court, in such a case, may grant