Appeal of the Odd Fellows Savings Bank

Citations

• 123 Pa. 356
• 23 W.N.C. 85
• 16 A. 606
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 660

Syllabus

<p>1. While the authority of the Orphans1 Court to determine disputed questions of title may well be doubted, yet it is very certain that it has jurisdiction and control over assets which admittedly belong to the estates of decedents.</p> <p>2. The Orphans1 Court, under § 7, act of May 19, 1874, P. L. 206, which was but declaratory of the law prior to its passage, has power to restrain the sale and transfer of assets of a decedent’s estate by any one having-possession thereof.</p> <p>3. Having such power, its jurisdiction is sufficient to enable it to order that property of a decedent’s estate admittedly in the hands of one not an executor, administrator, guardian or trustee, shall be surrendered for administration.</p> <p>4. A case once within the grasp of a court of equity, or of a court lawfully exercising equity powers, it has no need to call in the aid of a court of law: its process is plastic and its power limited only by the necessities of the ease and by its duty to administer equity in accordance with established rules.</p>