Opinion
August, 1814.
Appeal from a decree of the Chancellor. In August Term, 1813, the death of the appellant Summerl, who was defendant below, was suggested on the record and a rule was obtained that his personal representative, when appointed, should prosecute the appeal. Letters [of] administration cum testamento annexo were after duly granted in Pennsylvania, the residence of Summerl at his death, to Norris, whose name was entered on the record as the prosecutor of the appeal.
And now when the cause came on for argument Read, Sr., and Rodney, for respondents, objected that Norris had never been constituted administrator by the proper officer of this state, and was not therefore competent to prosecute any suit as administrator within the state; and cited Cranch. Vide also Grame et al., Administrators, v. Harris, 1 Dall. 456.
Broom and Vandyke, contra, cited 4 Dall., and 1 Del. Laws 82, c. 27, s. 2.
We are unanimously of opinion that under the Act of Assembly, if the letters of administration are filed and security given at any time before judgment, it is sufficient. This we know has been the construction put upon the Act for more than thirty years past. The object of the Act is to prevent foreign administrators from applying assumpsits in this state to the payment of debts out of it, until all those due to inhabitants are fully satisfied.