Case Name: Wilkes Wood, Judge &c., versus Sampson Washburn et al.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1823-10
Citations: 2 Pick. 24
Docket Number: 
Parties: Wilkes Wood, Judge &c., versus Sampson Washburn et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 19
Pages: 27–28

Head Matter:
Wilkes Wood, Judge &c., versus Sampson Washburn et al.
Where an administration bond was not executed by the administrator, the sureties were held not to be liable.
This was an action of debt, brought originally in this Court by the judge of probate of the county of Plymouth, upon a bond purporting to be given by Bethiah Torrey and the defendants, for the faithful performance by Bethiah Torrey of her duties as an administratrix. After oyer, upon which it appeared that the bond was not signed by Bethiah Torrey, but only by her sureties, the defendants pleaded in their third plea, lhat the supposed writing obligatory was not the deed of Bethiah Torrey ; and in their fourth, that it was not a probate bond of any kind, and that the cause of action, if any, accrued to the plaintiff within the original jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas, and not within the jurisdiction of this Court. (See St. 1786, c. 55, § 3.) To these two pleas there was a general demurrer.

Opinion:
M. Morton,
in support of the demurrer, contended that it was not a good plea for the defendants, to say that some other person did not execute the bond ; and that if the bond had any validity, it was as a probate bond. The bond recites that the administratrix is bound, and the defendants are estopped by their deed from denying it. Jac. Law. Dict. Estoppel; Hosier v. Searle, 2 Bos. & Pul. 299 ; Co. Lit. 352 ; Willoughby v. Brook, Cro. Eliz. 756 ; Strowd v. Willes, ibid. 362 ; Shelley v. Wright, Willes, 9 ; Bac. Abr. Pleas &c., I 11 ; 1 Saund. 216, n. 2; ibid. 326, n. 4 ; Kemp v. Goodal, 1 Salk. 277 ; S. C. 2 Ld. Raym. 1154 Palmer v. Ekins, ibid. 1550 ; Adams v. Barnes, 17 Mass. R. 365 ; 10 Vin. Abr. 468.
Eddy, contra, relied on the case of Bean v. Parker, 17 Mass. R. 591, where it was held that a bail bond not signed by the principal named in it was void.
At May term 1824, at Plymouth, the third and fourth pleas were adjudged good.