HAMMOND v. HAMMOND.—2 BLAND. 289

Even if the insufficiency of the personalty be to some extent admitted or

established, still the creditors may be notified to bring in their claims,

in order to ascertain what proportion of the realty must be sold.
If the personalty be shown to be sufficient, the suit may thenceforward be

confined to the administration thereof.
If the insufficiency of the personalty be established, it is customary to

decree a sale of the realty immediately, without setting the case down

for final hearing. (f)
A decree for a sale establishes the validity of some claim of a creditor, and

the insufficiency of the personalty, and those matters are no longer open

to question by the immediate parties, (g)
No creditor who comes in under such decree can be allowed to impeach it,

except on the ground of fraud, or because it makes an injurious and

illegal disposition of the property.

A decree for a sale virtually takes possession of the property, and vests it in
the Court for diatribution.

After the Court has, by a decree, assumed the administration of the assets,
creditors may be prevented, by injunction, from proceeding in other
cases, (h)

And the executor will not be permitted, at his pleasure, to apply the assets
in satisfaction of any particular claim.

How creditors and next of kin are to be notified; and how, and within what
time, they may be allowed to come in.

At any time before the fund has been actually parted with by the Court,
new claimants may be allowed to come in and participate, (i)

If the surplus has been paid away to the next of kin, &c., they may, in
some cases, be compelled to restore to the new claimant.

But if the whole estate has been paid to creditors, they cannot be made to
refund, and new creditors coming in take nothing by their application.

The usual way for a creditor to come in is by merely filing the voucher of
his claim, with an affidavit annexed such as is required for authenti-
cating a similar claim in the Orphans' Court.

A claim may be contested by a plaintiff, a defendant, or any one who has
been allowed to come in.

The Statute of Limitations may be relied on by any one who has an interest
in pleading it.

A creditor having a lien, although he cannot be compelled to come in under
the usual notice, may be made a party so as to have his incumbrance
cleared away for the benefit of the other creditors, (k)

The mode of making distribution: on what amount; and the nature of pri-
orities.

(f) Approved in Brown v. Wallace^ post, 598. See Rev. Code, Art. 66,
sec. 4.

(g) Approved in Rhodes v. Amsinck, 38 Md. 352. See Strike's Cose, 1
Bland, 57, note (b); Welch v. Stewart, ante. 38.

(h) Cited in Boyd v. Harris, 1 Md. Ch. 471. Cf. Bowen v. Gent, 54 Md.
555.

(i) Cited in Ohio Trust Co. v. Winn, 4 Md. Ch. 263. See Townshend v.
Duncan, ante, 45.

(k) Cited in Tessier v. Wyse, 3 Bland, 36.
19 2B.