Case Name: Hostetter's Appeal
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1837-05
Citations: 6 Watts 244
Docket Number: 
Parties: Hostetter’s Appeal.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Volume: 6
Pages: 244–245

Head Matter:
Hostetter’s Appeal.
It is error for the orphans’ court to vacate letters of administration without notice to the administrator, and an opportunity to show cause why the same should not be vacated.
APPEAL from the decree of the orphans’ court of Lancaster county, by Joseph Hostetter.
The heirs at law of Abraham Hostetter, deceased, represented by petition to the orphans’ court, that letters of administration cum testamento annexo of the said deceased had been granted to Joseph Hostetter, who settled an account of his administration, and in the spring of 1834 removed to Ohio, where he still resided, and praying the court to vacate the said letters; and on the same day, the 24th of November 1836, the court made a decree vacating the letters, and ordering new letters to issue to David Zook. From this decree Joseph Hostetter appealed.
Eeigart, for the appellant,
cited the Act of 1831-2, sect. 27, Pamph. Laws 197: and also sect. 57.
Ellmaker, contra.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
The twenty-seventh section of the act of 1832 authorizes the orphans' court, in cases like the present, to repeal letters testamentary or of administration, only after citation served or published according to the sixth clause of the fifty-seventh section. Therefore, the decree vacating the letters of administration granted to Joseph Hostetter and awarding new letters to David Zook, is reversed.