BURCH v. SCOTT, 113

the administratrix, Jane Burch, having died intestate, letters
of administration on her personal estate were granted by the
Orphans Court of Washington county, in the District of Columbia,
to Thomas Burch; and on the same day, and by the same court,
administration de bonis non of the effects of the late Jesse Burch,
was granted to the same Thomas Burch ;(a) that it had not been
found necessary to make sale of those negroes to pay the debts of
the late Jesse Burch; but, owing to the conduct of one of the
sureties in the administration bond, Kinsey Gittings, they remained
as a part of the surplus of his personalty to be distributed among
his next of kin; that those negroes, with their increase, had been
taken out of the possession of the late administratrix, Jane Burch,
by Kinsey Gittings, and held by him during his life, and after his
death had passed into the possession of William Scott, "who
claimed to hold them in virtue of letters of administration granted
to him upon the estate of Kinsey Gittings" and he had actually
sold them in October, 1818, and received payment for them,
amounting, as appears by his return of the sales, to $2850; "which,
with interest and a reasonable compensation for their services while
in his possession, and in the possession of Gittings, the plaintiffs
were justly entitled to demand of this defendant; that the defend-
ant was about to distribute the money so received by him as a part
of the assets of his intestate Gittings."

Upon these circumstances this suit was instituted by Thomas
Burch, as administrator de bonis non of the late Jesse Burch, and in
his own right, together with Jesse Burch, Fielder Burch, Mildred
with her husband James Johnson, and Kitty with her husband John
Stephens; which Thomas, Jesse, Fielder, Mildred, and Kitty, are the
children, and next of kin of the late Jesse and Jane Burch, against
William Scott alone. The plaintiffs prayed to have the defendant,
Scott, considered as a trustee for their benefit; that a distribution
of the negroes, or the proceeds of the sale, might be made among
them; and that the defendant might be restrained by injunction

(a) Upon letters granted in the District of Columbia, the executor or administra-
tor is, by the act of 1813, ch, 165, authorized to sue here; although upon such letters
granted here, he cannot sue there, 1 Cran. 259. But no suit can be sustained here
by any one, on letters of administration granted in a foreign country; 1 Hayw. 355;
3 Bac. Abr. 36; Mitf. Pl. 155,, Mollinson v. Bowley, MS. 1806; or in any one of the
States of this Union, 3 Cran. 319; 9 Cran. 151; Kirk v. Brown, MS. 1818. But
the act of 1815, ch. 149 s. 4, authorizes the revival of an action at common law
against an executor or administrator, to whom letters have not been granted here, and
who "resides out of this State."

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