Case Name: DEN, EX DEM. M'DONALD, v. KING AND KING
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1791
Citations: 1 N.J.L. 494
Docket Number: 
Parties: DEN, EX DEM. M’DONALD, v. KING AND KING.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 1
Pages: 494–494

Head Matter:
DEN, EX DEM. M’DONALD, v. KING AND KING.
Before Kinsey, C. J., and Chetwood, J.
1. Where testator directs his executors to sell lands, and they renounce, and administration is granted cum testamento annexo, the administrators are not authorized to sell.
2. A party is estopped from gainsaying a title which is recognized by a deed under which he himself claims.

Opinion:
In the trial of this cause, Kinsey, C. J., held, with the concurrence of Chetwood, J., that where testator directed his lands to be sold by his executors, this was a personal trust; and, as the executors renounced, there was no one by whom the duty could be fulfilled. A sale by administrators oum testamento annexo, was altogether unauthorized and void.
2d. That, as the deed under which the lessor of the plaintiff claimed, was expressly recognized in that which is the foundation of the defendant's title, the defendant is estopped from questioning or gainsaying it. See Embree v. Ellis, 2 Johns. 119.
After the jury were charged by the court, the plaintiff suffered a voluntary non-suit.