Langmaid v. Mazza

McWilliams, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This extraordinary appeal is from an order, dated 4 June 1971, of the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, sitting as the Orphans’ Court, Pugh, J. (now C. J.), denying a petition for the removal of an administratrix. We have not found in the transcript of the record any testimony, any stipulation of facts, or any finding of facts.

Some allegations of fact have been admitted, in responsive pleadings, others have been disputed, but there is nothing upon which we could base a proper conclusion. Nevertheless, the record does seem to suggest a situation which we think ought to be fully explored and to that end we shall remand the case for further proceedings, neither affirming nor reversing the order of the learned judge below. It is not likely there will be much dispute about the items in the record which seemed to suggest to us the existence of a situation calling for further exploration. The appellant (Langmaid) and Helen Mazza became husband and wife perhaps in 1950, perhaps earlier.

Two children were born, Bruce in September 1951, Gregory in June 1956. The Langmaids were divorced in June 1962. Helen died intestate on 30 March 1966. Helen and her sister Olga, the appellee, are the children of Louise B. Mazza, who died in May 1963.

In 1954 Louise had created certain trusts, in each of which Olga was named trustee. The corpus is said to be invested in about $1,000,000 worth of realty producing little or no income. There is an allegation in the record that the corpus might be worth $20,000,000. ¹⁰³ On 13 July 1966 Olga was appointed administratrix of the estate of Helen. Bond in the amount of $4,000 was filed and approved.

An inventory of real estate, appraised at $2,826, was filed in May 1967. The inventory of personalty was filed in March 1968. A value of $11,926.30 was indicated. While the docket entries are not at all clear, e.g., they are not in chronological order, there is no doubt that Olga has succeeded in rebuffing all attempts to take her deposition, to compel her to complete the administration of the estate, and to remove her for failing to do so.

A first administration account was filed in June 1969 but it is not mentioned in the docket entries and it does not appear that any action was taken thereon. In April 1971 Langmaid, who was appointed guardian for the two boys in December 1970, filed a second petition to have Olga removed as administratrix. We were quite taken aback to discover in the transcript the document below set forth: “HEARING “Judge Pugh June 4, 1971 11:30 A.M. Present: Charles W. Woodward, attorney for the administratrix Samuel Intrater, attorney for the minor heirs “This hearing came