Meyers v. Kooke

⁴⁷² Hester, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The will of Herman B. L. Everding, of Baltimore, bequeathed one thousand dollars to his cousin, Mrs. Mary Meyers, of Gehrde, in the province of Hanover, Germany. The Orphans’ Court of Baltimore City admitted the will to probate, without contest, and granted letters testamentary to the designated executors. There were certain provisions of the will which the executors desired 'to have judicially construed.

They accordingly filed a bill of complaint in the Circuit Court of Baltimore 'City, invoking its jurisdiction for the construction of the will and the distribution of the estate. Mrs. Meyers, with other defendants, by Charles H. Kooke, as their attorney in fact, and by B. Harris Henderson, as their solicitor, answered the bill of complaint and consented to the judicial action therein proposed. The circuit court subsequently passed a decree assuming jurisdiction, construing the will and directing a distribution. In pursuance of the decree, and after the ratification of an audit prepared in conformity with its directions, the executors paid to Mr. Kooke, as attorney in fact for Mrs. Meyers, the sum of $929.40, being the amount of her legacy, less the collateral inheritance tax and certain costs.

The money so received by the attorney was deposited in the name of Mrs. Meyers, subject to hi-s order, in the Hopkins Place Savings Bank, of Baltimore. A formal release of the executors from any further liability on account of the legacy was executed by Mr. Kooke in -the exercise of the full and specific authority conferred upon him by the power of attorney. Upon being notified of the receipt and deposit of the money, and of Mr. Kooke’s readiness to forward all or any part of it to her, as she might desire, Mrs. Meyers requested him to send her a small portion of the legacy. With this request he promptly complied.

The balance of the fund has since remained on deposit in the savings bank, awaiting Mrs. Meyers’ instructions as to its remittance. About three months after the payment of the legacy by the executors, a. caveat to the will was filed by Mrs. Meyers, al ⁴⁷³ leging that it was not duly signed and attested, that the testator was not mentally capable at the time of its execution, and that it was procured by undue influence and fraud. The caveat was opposed by the executors and the residuary legatee, in answers which denied its allegations and relied upon the caveator’s participation in the equity proceeding for the interpretation of the will, and her acceptance of a legacy under its provisions, as an effectual bar to her present effort to contest its validity. At the hearing in the orphans’ court, the record of the case in the circuit court was offered and admitted.

The record included the original power of attorney to Mr. Kooke, signed by Mrs. Meyers and acknowledged by her before a German notary, whose act was duly authenticated by a judge of the jurisdiction in which the acknowledgment was made and certified. There was testimony by Mr. Kooke before the orphans’ court as to his receipt and disposition of Mrs. Meyers’ legacy, and his release to the executors was offered in evidence. The orphans’ court dismissed the caveat, and from that action the caveator has appealed. In her endeavor to avoid the' effect of the rule of estoppel, which appears to be clearly applicable to the case in view of the uncontradicted facts, the appellant makes the contention that the Circuit Court of Baltimore City was without jurisdiction to decree the distribution under which the legacy io her was paid.

The fact of her consent as a party to the exercise of such authority by the court is said to be1 ineffectual to confer a jurisdiction which would not otherwise exist. It is argued that there were no special conditions which could justify a court of equity in taking charge of the administration and distribution of the estate passing under the will. It is further contended that the executors, who paid the legacy, were acting under appointment by a