Mock v. Higgins

On November 16, 1930, Henrietta E. Garrett died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leaving an estate of over seventeen million dollars. She left a will that disposed of only sixty thousand dollars of her estate and the balance became intestate property. The estate was administered in the orphans’ court of Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania. So far as known, the decedent left no near relatives and over twenty-six thousand people filed claims, alleging that they were relatives of the decedent and entitled to a distributive share of the estate.

Howard S. Kretschmar filed a claim and asserted that he…