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RANDALL v. HODGES. 483
be had, should require bond with surety for its safety. And if my
will should not be drawn in question within ten years after it had
been recorded, it should be deemed altogether valid and conclusive
as well in regard to the real as to the personal estate of which it
had made any disposition, (o)
It has been urged that there is nothing to be found in all our ex-
tensive and detailed legislative enactments, in relation to the ad-
ministration of the estates of deceased persons, which authorizes
or requires such papers as are now called for to be deposited with
the Register of Wills; or their being recorded by him, much less
the receiving of any copies of them, which he might give as evi-
dence in any way whatever.
In England neither an executor nor an administrator can be cited
by the Ecclesiastical Court, ex officio, to account; nor can a credi-
tor who calls an executor or administrator to account before that
tribunal be allowed to controvert the account and put him to the
proof of its statements. But a legatee, or next of kin, may there
call an executor or administrator to account, and controvert every
item of the account rendered. And therefore when an account has
been so passed upon, it becomes final and conclusive between the
parties to it, by the judgment of a competent and proper tribunal, (p)
Here executors and administrators are required to account within
a limited time; and, if they fail to do so voluntarily, they may be
cited before the Orphans Court and compelled to render an ac-
count. The adjusting of such accounts by the Orphans Court
appears to be, in most respects, a part of its merely voluntary, or
ex parte jurisdiction; for it disposes of the whole matter without
opposition; and it has not been clothed with the power to entertain
jurisdiction of a suit instituted for an account against an executor
or administrator, at the instance of any one but a legatee, or next
(o) It has been since declared, by an act passed on the 14th of March, 1832, that
every will of which probat shall be taken by any Orphans Court shall be retained in
the office of the register, and not delivered out to any person; and every issue of
devisavit vel non from a Court of Chancery shall be tried in the county of the office,
at which trial the said will may be adduced in evidence under the care of the re-
gister, or one by him deputed, under a subpaena, duces tecum, issued on a special order
of the court holding such trial; and in like manner such will may be produced in
evidence on the trial in any court of this state, of any issue involving the said will,
and requiring its production in the opinion of said court; but nothing herein con-
tained shall authorize the keeping said will out of the care and custody of the re-
gister. — 1831, ch. 315, s. 16.
(p) Toiler Execut. 492, 495; Canterbury v. Wills, 1 Salk. 315; Greerside v. Ben-
son, 3 Atk. 253; Anderson v. Fox, 2 Hen. & Mun. 259.
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