Majority
Headnote
On demurrer to the declaration. The first count was in debt for $200. “ For that whereas, by a certain final judgment or decree, made before Abraham A. Van Burén, Esquire, surrogate of the county of Columbia aforesaid, in a certain matter depending before said Abraham A. Van ⅜ 1 ° . . , Burén, surrogate of the county aforesaid, wherein Anson Bakin and others, heirs at law of Joshua Dakin, deceased, were plaintiffs, and Abner Bristol and Lydia Bristol bs wife, administrator and administratrix of the estate of the said Joshua Dakin, deceased, were defendants, concerning the administration and distribution of the estate of the said Joshua Dakin, deceased, it was, among other things, heretofore, to wit, oii the 9fA of November, A. D. 1823, in due form of law, ordered, adjudged and decreed by the said surrogate, that the said Abner Bristol and Lydia Bristolhxs wife, administrator and administratrix as aforesaid, pay to the said Anson Dakin, the sum of 78 dollars and 64 cents, as by the said decree remaining as of .Curia, per
The defendant makes five objections to the sufficiency of the declaration.
First, it is said, the execution should have been issued against Bristol and wife ; and secondly, that interest is not recoverable. If these objections were well founded, the sheriff would not, therefore, be at liberty to suffer an escape ; nor would he, if the third point be tenable. The declaration must describe correctly the record and proceedings it purports to set out; and if the record or proceedings produced on trial do not correspond with the description, the objection may be taken for the variance.
But it is objected, fourthly, that the declaration does not give jurisdiction to the surrogate ; and it seems to me that this objection is unanswerable. The construction given to the act, (1 R. L. 448, s. 11, 12,) by the late chancellor Kent, (4 John. Ch. Rep. 410, 11,) is, that the surrogate granting administration, has power to call the administrator to account. I think jurisdiction belongs to that surrogate’s court alone which granted the administration. It is not averred in this declaration, either that the surrogate of Columbia county granted administration, or that he had jurisdiction cf the matter.
The rule is, that the pleading, relying on a proceeding of an inferior jurisdiction, must set forth the facts necessa
There is nothing in the last objection, that the counts of the declaration are repugnant.
The defendant is entitled to judgment on the demurrer, with leave to the plaintiff to amend on payment of costs.
Judgment for the defendant.