Difference between revisions of "Pendleton v. Whiting"
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==Background== | ==Background== | ||
| − | + | Edmund Pendleton and Peter Lyons filed suit as the administrators of John Robinson's estate. The defendants were Elizabeth Whiting, Warner Lewis, and John Seawell, who were acting as executors for Peter Beverley Whiting and for Thomas Whiting. Robinson had paid several creditors on behalf of his friend Beverley Whiting; when Beverley Whiting died in 1755, his estate owed Robinson over £418. Beverley Whiting named Robinson his estate's executor, along with Beverley's sons, Thomas and Francis Whiting. Thomas and Francis claimed possession of their share of Beverley's estate before Robinson's debt was repaid. Robinson scheduled several meetings with Thomas Whiting to settle the debts that Beverley's estate owed Robinson, but they never successfully met to discuss the topic, and Robinson died in May 1766. Various efforts to settle Beverley's debt with Robinson were stymied by Thomas's failure to attend meetings organized for that purpose, until eventually the American Revolution stopped judicial business in Virginia. Thomas Whiting died, and in 1783 Robinson and Lyons asked Elizabeth Whiting about the status of the debt. In January 1784, Elizabeth Whiting petitioned the Gloucester County Court to appoint commissioners to settle the debt between Thomas Whiting's estate and Robinson's estate, but then refused to proceed because she had been advised that Pendleton's and Lyons's claims were barred by the statute of limitations. Pendleton and Lyons argued that just as a trustee's duty to their beneficiary never expires, equity demands that a duty the beneficiary owes to the trustee should not be subject to the statute of limitations. | |
==The Court's Decision== | ==The Court's Decision== | ||
Revision as of 16:28, 7 June 2013
Pendleton v. Whiting, Wythe 38 (1791), was a case.[1]
Background
Edmund Pendleton and Peter Lyons filed suit as the administrators of John Robinson's estate. The defendants were Elizabeth Whiting, Warner Lewis, and John Seawell, who were acting as executors for Peter Beverley Whiting and for Thomas Whiting. Robinson had paid several creditors on behalf of his friend Beverley Whiting; when Beverley Whiting died in 1755, his estate owed Robinson over £418. Beverley Whiting named Robinson his estate's executor, along with Beverley's sons, Thomas and Francis Whiting. Thomas and Francis claimed possession of their share of Beverley's estate before Robinson's debt was repaid. Robinson scheduled several meetings with Thomas Whiting to settle the debts that Beverley's estate owed Robinson, but they never successfully met to discuss the topic, and Robinson died in May 1766. Various efforts to settle Beverley's debt with Robinson were stymied by Thomas's failure to attend meetings organized for that purpose, until eventually the American Revolution stopped judicial business in Virginia. Thomas Whiting died, and in 1783 Robinson and Lyons asked Elizabeth Whiting about the status of the debt. In January 1784, Elizabeth Whiting petitioned the Gloucester County Court to appoint commissioners to settle the debt between Thomas Whiting's estate and Robinson's estate, but then refused to proceed because she had been advised that Pendleton's and Lyons's claims were barred by the statute of limitations. Pendleton and Lyons argued that just as a trustee's duty to their beneficiary never expires, equity demands that a duty the beneficiary owes to the trustee should not be subject to the statute of limitations.
The Court's Decision
Wythe's Discussion
References
- ↑ George Wythe, Decisions of Cases in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery, (Richmond: Printed by Thomas Nicolson, 1795), 38.
