Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/656

644 $3,000 was paid to the committee of Rosanna Andoe and the like sum to Henry Murta.

Shortly after this it appears that the widow of Edward Murta, a brother of the above-named affiant Henry Murta, saw in a newspaper some mention of this distribution, and she immediately caused affidavits of numerous witnesses to be filed in said probate court, establishing the fact that her husband, who had died in 1865, was a brother of Henry Murta; that she had been married to him in Pittsburgh in 1850, and that they had lived there continuously, and had four children who were living.

It appeared from the affidavits that Henry Murta, whose residence had been in Pittsburgh and St. Louis, and who, in his affidavit, had failed to mention this brother or his children, had from time to time lived in the same house with them in Pittsburgh, and a physician made affdavit that in December, 1859, he had attended Henry Murta during an illness at Edward Murta's house. Upon the showing made by these affidavits the children of Edward Murta were admitted without opposition to share in the estate, and a further distribution was made of $4,000 each to Henry Murta and the committee of Rosanna Andoe, and $1,750 to each of the four children of Edward Murta. These sums were paid by the administrator under an order of the court, dated fourteenth of June, 1869. On the twenty-seventh of September, 1869, there was a final settlement by the administrator, in which the committee of Rosanna Andoe received the further sum of $5,069.65.

The present suit was instituted in January, 1879, by Emily Sullivan, claiming to be a sister of the intestate, and by the son and daughter of John Sullivan, deceased, alleged to have been a brother of the intestate. These complainants claim that they are the persons and the only persons who, as his next of kin, had any right to the intestate's personal estate. The defendants in this suit are Rosanna Andoe, the lunatic; John T. Mason, R., her present committee; Elder, a former committee; Merryman, administrator of Scott, a deceased committee; the executor of Henry Murta, who is now