Farmers' Bank of Alexandria v. John Hooff Et Al‪.‬

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the district of Columbia for the county of Alexandria. In the circuit court of the county of Alexandria, the appellants filed a bill, setting forth, that a certain Mary Resler being indebted to the Farmers' Bank of Alexandria, as maker of certain promissory notes, amounting to $1267, which notes were renewed, and were afterwards reduced by payments, in order to secure the payment of the sum remaining due to the bank, on the 10th of September 1823, made and executed a deed to John Hooff, one of the defendants, by which certain real estate, in the city of Alexandria, was conveyed to him, in trust to secure the payment of the amount due on said notes. The title of Mary Resler to the property so conveyed, was derived from the will of her deceased husband; and the bill claimed that she took a fee-simple in the property, to be defeated by her marrying again, and she having died without marrying, the property was liable to her debts. The bill proceeded to state, that James Galt and others, also appellees, contended that Mary Resler took, under the will of her husband, no more than a life-estate in the property so conveyed in trust; and that John Hooff, the trustee, declined making a sale of the property to satisfy the debt due to the appellants. The bill asked a discovery of the asserted title of the appellees; that the equity of redemption set up by the appellees might be foreclosed; and that the trustee be decreed to sell the premises. The bill also asked for an account from the administrator of Mary Resler. The answer of John Galt, one of the appellees, denied the title of Mary Resler in the property conveyed by the deed of trust to have been a fee-simple in her; and asserted, that the fee in the same descended to the respondent and to his brothers, and asserted, that Mary Resler took no more in the premises, under the will of her deceased husband, than an estate for life.