Dungan v. Vondersmith

Bowie, J , delivered the opinion of the Court. By a decree of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, sitting as a Court of equity, passed in the case of Peter Vondersmith, and others vs. John Wolf, and others, on the 12th of July, 1871, the real estate of which Daniel Vondersmith died seized, was decreed to he sold, for partition ²⁵⁰ among his heirs, and Peter Vondersmith appointed trustee to execute the decree. This decree appears from endorsement thereon to have been passed by consent of the solicitors for the complainants and defendants, after the return of a commission issued and executed. On the 6th of November, 1872, Peter Vondersmith, the trustee, filed his petition in the cause, stating he had advertised the property for sale at the Exchange Sale Rooms, as per advertisement therewith filed in accordance with the decree, and having no offer he withdrew the same. ■ The petitioner represented that he was unable from want of health to attend to the sale of the property, and prayed he might be discharged and some one appointed in his stead.

Whereupon the Court by an order of the same date discharged him and appointed R. R. Boarman, Esq., trustee to execute the decree upon the same conditions and requirements as therein prescribed. Mr. Boarman, on the 26th of May, 1874, reported to the Court, that after repeatedly advertising the same for sale on the premises, at Catonsville, and at the court house door, he failed to obtain a price which the parties interested were willing to take, and the sale was withdrawn and the property was still on hand for want of purchasers. The trustee further reported that in the mean time the dam had washed away and he had deemed it his duty to have it rebuilt, that the tenant had superintended the rebuilding ; that he was paying certain rents, and prayed the matter might be referred to the auditor to state an account, and report as to the propriety of the allowance, etc. On the 4th of February, 1875, the trustee further reported that having previously made several ineffectual attempts to sell the property, he again advertised the said real estate to he sold on the 1st day of February, 1875, at the court house door at Towsontown, after three weeks notice in the Maryland Journal and by handbills, and in ²⁵¹ pursuance of said advertisements he attended at the time and place of sale, and then and there sold the same to Alex. H. Horner, for the sum of two thousand dollars, he being the highest bidder for the same.

An order of ratification nisi being passed on this report, exceptions were filed by the appellant, which being overruled, an appeal was taken from the order of the Court of the 21st of October, 1876, overruling the exceptions and finally ratifying the sale. The exceptant filed two series of objections, and took testimony under an order of the Court, to sustain them as far as they were the subject of proof. The first series, as far as they were specific, objected that the bond of the trustee was not such as is required by law, and was irregular and defective. 2ndly. That the price is grossly inadequate, accompanied by circumstances, fraught with suspicion.

The supplemental exceptions charged that the sale should not