Cephalis v. Briscoe

The question to be answered in this appeal from the Orphans’ Court of Baltimore City is whether a boy over eighteen, but under twenty-one, has the legal capacity to be named administrator of his father’s estate.

Anthony Cephalis died, intestate, on May 26, 1952, survived by only one child, Stanley, who was then over eighteen years of age. The decedent and his wife were divorced at the time of his death, and he had been living with a sister, Pauline Ostrowski. The son was self-supporting and did not live with them.

Five days after the death of his father, the son wrote a letter to his aunt,…