McGuire v. Rogers

Bryan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Joseph D. McGuire filed an account as administrator •of Thomas B. Dorsey, deceased, in the Orphans’ Court of Howard County. John G. Rogers, a creditor of the deceased, filed an exception to the account and alleged the following reason, “Because the costs allowed said administrator in the Court of Appeals in the case of Murphy and Co. vs. McGuire, Adm’r, are not properly allowable, and for other manifest inaccuracies, unlawful charges and discrepancies apparent upon the face of said account.” The Orphans’ Court ordered that the costs in the case mentioned, both in the Superior Court of ¹⁹⁸ Baltimore City and in the Court of Appeals should he rejected, and that the administrator should bring into Court the sum of $1425, with interest from the 29th day of May, 1890, being the amount of a judgment in the Superior Court in favor of said McGuire against John Murphy and Co., as assets of the estate. The administrator appealed from this order.

The order of the Orphans’ Court was not embraced within the limits of the exception to the administration account. We will, however, consider the order without regard to this objection. A judgment had been obtained by the administrator against Murphy and Co.; on appeal by the defendants, this Court reversed the judgment, and refused to order a new trial. The opinion of the-Court was, that there was no legally sufficient evidence in the case to entitle the plaintiff to recover.

Under ordinary circumstances, this adjudication ought to put. an end to all further litigation on this subject. It. would be a singular solecism in jurisprudence, if any man was responsible for the payment of a null and void judgment. But it is supposed that the circumstances of this case impose a peculiar responsibility on the administrator. At the trial of the case in the Superior Court, exceptions were taken by the defendants; but they were not signed and sealed by the Court within thirty days, after the verdict, as required by the .local law of Baltimore City.

The plaintiff, however, gave his consent that they might be signed and sealed; and the defendants’ appeal was brought to this Court. Without the plaintiff’s consent the exceptions could not have been perfected; without the exceptions the appeal would not have presented the questions in the case; without such an appeal the judgment could not have been reversed, and the plaintiff could have collected it. Hence, it is-insisted that the loss of the judgment was directly caused by the plaintiff’s conduct, and that he ought to- ¹⁹⁹ be held responsible for it. If there were a breach of duty on the part of the administrator, he must be visited with the consequences of official dereliction.

An administrator is required to be faithful and diligent in his office; it is one of great trust and responsibility. If any loss is sustained by the intestate’s estate from his negligence or imprudence, he will receive a rigorous measure of justice. As far as he can