Baird's Appeal
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
APPEAL from the Common Pleas of York county. Rachel Stewart made her will, in which she appointed William Johnson her executor, and devised to the said “ William Johnson, his heirs and assigns, in .trust, as hereafter mentioned,” all her estate, of every kind and description, to the use of Elizabeth Baird.
Read the full summary
APPEAL from the Common Pleas of York county. Rachel Stewart made her will, in which she appointed William Johnson her executor, and devised to the said “ William Johnson, his heirs and assigns, in .trust, as hereafter mentioned,” all her estate, of every kind and description, to the use of Elizabeth Baird. On the 17th of May 1822, William Johnson proved the will, and filed an inventory amounting to $1744.62-^. He died without settling any account of said trust, or of his executorship. On the 12th of January 1839, Samuel Johnson, his surviving executor, filed an account in the Orphans’ Court…
1Opinion of the Court
Per Ctjriam
By the common law, the heir of a trustee of real estate succeeds to the trust at the death of his ancestor, because the title to the legal estate descends upon him. But he becomes a trustee only prospectively, and accountable' only for his own management of the trust; and has no concern with the accounts of his predecessor, which can be settled only by his personal representative. He has nothing to do with the execution of the trust, so far as it includes personal estate. This account, we understand, contains no more than those matters with which the accountant is personally…