Meyer v. Henderson

Citations

• 88 Md. 585
• 42 A. 241
• 1899 Md. LEXIS 115

Syllabus

<p>Caveat to Wills — Preliminary Issue of Relationship of Caveator to Testator to be First Tried— Verdict tipon Issues Improperly Granted — Appeal by Legatee from Order Revoking Probate of Will — Time of Filing Caveat — Addition of New Issue after Time Limited— ftirisdiction of Orphans’ Court.</p> <p>When there is a subsisting order of the Orphans’ Court directing an issue to be tried at law concerning the relationship to the testator of a party who has filed a caveat to a will, it is error to direct other issues to be tried until the right of the petitioner to maintain the suit is established. And if there be a verdict against the will upon such new issue the probate should not be thereupon revoked.</p> <p>The verdict of the jury upon issues under a caveat is generally conclusive as to the facts found by the verdict, but when the verdict is rendered upon an issue which the Orphans’ Court should not have granted because an outstanding issue of the relationship of the caveator to the testator had not been decided, then the Orphans’ Court is not bound by the verdict, and no judgment'revoking the probate should be entered thereon.</p> <p>A legatee under a will, although not a party of record to a caveat, is a party aggrieved by an order of the Orphans’ Court improperly revoking probate of the will, and may appeal from such order under Code, Art. 5, sec. 58, providing that any party aggrieved by an order of the Orphans’ Court may appeal therefrom.</p> <p>Under the Act of 1894, ch. 405, no will is subject to caveat or other objection to its validity after the expiration of three years from its probate, or, in the case of wills probated before the passage of the Act after the expiration of three years' from such passage. Held, that a caveat raising a distinctly new ground of objection to a will cannot be filed more than three years after the probate, even with the consent of the parties, although a caveat stating other and different objections may have been previously fil