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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 3, Page 285   View pdf image (33K)
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IN THE MATTER OF RACHEL COLVIN. 286
To avoid a proceeding so unusual and anomalous, there seems
no alternative but to confine our attention, in deciding upon
this application, exclusively to the rights of the parties as they
are defined and ascertained by the law; and thus limiting the
inquiry, and it appearing, as before remarked, that the recom-
mendation of Mr. Ellicott decidedly preponderates over those
in favor of the other persons, it follows that he should be ap-
pointed, unless the parties opposing him have succeeded in
showing that he is personally unfit for the trust; the ruling
principle being the personal fitness of the person for the office.
With a view to make up my judgment upon this point, I have
carefully read all the evidence bearing upon it, and have lis-
tened with attention and interest to the elaborate arguments of
counsel on the one side and the other, and have arrived at the
settled conviction that Mr. Ellicott is a fit and proper person
to be clothed with this delicate and important- trust. His in-
tegrity, his business capacity and habits, stand vindicated by
the proof, and I can see nothing in the character of the pursuits
in which he is engaged from which it can be fairly inferred or
reaaonably apprehended that he will not, faithfully perform his
trust. I fully concur in the principle established in the case of
Eunice Salisbury, a lunatic, 3 Johns. Ch. Rep., 347, and the
other cases which have been cited on the same point, that the
great and leading object in the selection of persons for the
management of the estates of lunatics, and the care and custody
of their persons, is to advance their welfare and comfort; and
that the interest of those who may be entitled to the succes-
sion is wholly subordinate to this. In fact, the old rule which
excluded, as a matter of course, the next of kin of a lunatic
from the office of committee of his person, if such next of kin
was also his heir-at-law, has been broken down, because, con-
trary to the presumption which prevailed in barbarous times,
the law now supposes that those who stand nearest to the lu-
natic by the ties of kindred, will treat him with more affection
and patient fortitude than strangers to his blood; and hence
consanguinity, though it confers no positive title, is now con-
sidered as a considerable recommendation in the selection of a

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Reports of Cases in the High Court of Chancery of Maryland 1846-1854
Volume 200, Volume 3, Page 285   View pdf image (33K)
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