Sparks v. Weedon

Goldsborough, J., delivered the opinion of this Court: The only important question for our consideration in this case, is, are the bequests made to the appellee by the last will and testament of Elizabeth Miller, general or specific legacies ? It is conceded that the bank stock of the Farmers Bank of Maryland, is a specific legacy. In our opinion the bills obligatory of James Sands and Henry H. Bush, and the large chest and contents mentioned in the third clause of the will, are each of them, equally specific. As to the bills obligatory, we find in 1 Roper on Legacies, 277, 3d Edition, the following emphatic language: “That when the- gift of the legacy is so connected with.the debt or security as that the gift of the legacy and of the debt or security are the same, the intention to give nothing more than the identical debt or money due on the security is apparent and consequently the legacy will be specific.” See also 2 Brown’s C. C., 109. 2 Vesey, Senr., 623.

After the appellants had applied all the assets of the estate (except the legacies mentioned in the will) to the payment of debts, expenses, &c., there remained a deficiency of $1593.66 to be paid by an abatement of the specific legacies pari passu, including the legacies of James Iglehart & ¹⁶⁵ Co’s note and the silver plate bequeathed to Mrs. Glover which were equally specific. The personal-estate is presumed to be fully administered at the expiration of thirteen months from the date of administration, and interest should be calculated from that period on all the legacies. Whatever might then be their relative value, that relative value would be maintained at any future period which might be selected to state an account. Upon this basis, we think the auditor’s account A R, No, 2, was properly stated.

Not as apprehended by the appellants, to charge them with the interest thus