Jackson v. Jackson

Singley, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. These two appeals, joined for purposes of briefs and argument, are respectively from an order entered by the Circuit Court for Montgomery County sitting as the Orphans’ Court for that county and from an order entered by the same circuit court, sitting in equity. The litigation stems from the administration of the estate of Thomas J. Jackson (the testator), who died domiciled in Montgomery County on 19 July 1965. He was survived by his widow, Helen T. Jackson, (the widow or the executrix), whom Mr. Jackson named as executrix of the will which he executed on 25 April 1962, and by two sons by a prior marriage, John E. Jackson and Andrew Jackson (Andrew) .

Only Andrew is the appellant here. Another phase of the matter was before us in Jackson v. Jackson, 249 Md. 170 , 238 A. 2d 852 (1968), which involved an attack on the will. There we affirmed the judgment entered on a motion for a directed verdict made at the close of the case put on by Andrew. Having failed in his major effort to invalidate his father’s will, Andrew then mounted skirmishes on two fronts.

The earlier case (No. 141) commenced with the filing of a petition by the executrix in October 1969 in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County in equity in which she sought the aid of that court in construing the will of the testator. One of the issues raised in that pro ¹⁴⁰ ceeding was whether Andrew, who had been bequeathed 20 shares of the stock of American Telephone and Telegraph Company (the Telephone Company) by his father’s will, became entitled to 40 shares of Telephone Company stock by virtue of a two-for-one split of the stock which occurred on 1 June 1964, after the execution of the will, but before the testator’s death. Another issue involved the effect of a provision of the testator’s will that “[a]nyone attempting to contest this will shall receive nothing under it,” in view of the fact that the widow as ancillary administratrix of the testator’s estate had filed a complaint for declaratory relief in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against Andrew’s brother, John, alleging that certain shares of the stock of the Telephone Company which had been registered in the joint names of John and the testator had been so registered for purposes of convenience only, and not with the intention of divesting the testator of his interest as sole owner. The equity case came on for hearing on 21 October 1969.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the chancellor, in an oral opinion delivered from the bench, indicated that he was prepared to hold that under a proper construction of the will, there was to be distributed to Andrew 20 shares of Telephone Company stock and the widow was not precluded from taking under the will by reason of the suit which she had brought in the District of Columbia. Andrew filed his notice of appeal on 3 November 1969. The court’s written order was not entered until 18 November. On 16 February 1970, the executrix moved to dismiss the appeal because it had not been taken from a written order.

We granted the motion and dismissed the appeal on 2 March 1970. See Mattingly v. Houston, 252 Md. 590 , 250 A. 2d 633 (1969) and particularly the cases cited at 593. On 17 March 1970, Andrew returned to the equity side of the circuit court with a “Petition and Motion for Order to Correct Order,” alleging that the order of 18 Novem ¹⁴¹ ber incorrectly indicated that it had been passed by