Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/661

Rh set aside the distribution for fraud. None of the parties who had received distributive shares of the estate resided in the state of Missouri, and they could not be served with process, and it was found that the administrator was protected by the order of the probate court. The complainants then dismissed that bill, and finding in this district the lunatic and the money distributed to her, they filed this bill in January, 1879. Considering the difficulties in the way of the complainants, and that the defendant has been in no way prejudiced by the lapse of time, we do not see any reason why, in a case in which the equities are so plain, the defence of laches should prevail.

Third. It is urged that the proper parties have not been made complainants. It is objected that even if it is admitted that the complainants have established their relationship, and that the complainant Emily Sullivan is a sister of the intestate, and that the complainant' Mary Mowlds and her brother, Jeremiah Sullivan, are children of John Sullivan, a deceased brother, yet as the testimony shows that John Sullivan died in London in 1867, after the death of the intestate, the administrator of John Sullivan should be the complainant claiming his interest and not his children. Conceding it to be true that the administrator is the proper party to receive the distributive share of John Sullivan, we still have one of the complainants with an undoubted standing in court, and as, until the decision of this suit, it could not be known whether or not there would be assets of John Sullivan, in Maryland, requiring administration, and as the administration would hare to be taken out in Maryland, we think the persons presumably, equitably, and beneficially entitled to his estate may, with the other complainant, in a suit of this character, be allowed to represent his interest in the fund sought to be recovered. There can be no difficulty in now requiring administration on the estate of John Sullivan, and in allowing his Maryland administrator, or indeed any other parties who might prove themselves entitled to any distributive share 6t the fund to be recovered, from coming in and sharirig in the benefit of any decree.