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234 F.2d 691

Docket No. 12997.

Nicol v. Baird

District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals

Argued May 14, 1956.

Decided June 7, 1956.

District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1956-06-07

2 counsel of record

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“had been served with a complaint which demanded relief against it in its capacity as executor.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Hawkins v. Wash. Metro. Area Transit Auth.

“name nowhere appear[ed] in the body of the complaint,”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Hawkins v. Wash. Metro. Area Transit Auth.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Opinion by (per_curiam) · Decided 1956-06-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently April 2018

6 federal appellate ·

601956196019701980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1Miss Jessie P. Grandy, Washington, D. C., for appellants.

¶2Mr. David C. Bastían, Washington, D. C., with whom Messrs. Arthur P. Drury, John M. Lynham and John E. Powell, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for appellee.

¶3Before EDGERTON, Chief Judge, and PRETTYMAN and WASHINGTON, Circuit Judges.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5The caption of the complaint herein named as defendant—

¶6“Bruce Baird, President

¶7National Savings and Trust Co., Executor

¶8Estate of Frederick Edgar Johnston 15th St. and New York Ave. N. W. Washington, D. C.”

¶9The National Savings and Trust Com-any, whose President is Mr. Baird, was in fact the Executor of the Estate of Frederick Edgar Johnston, and the body of the complaint sought relief against that estate. Service of the summons and complaint was made on a Vice President of the Trust Company. Mr. Baird moved to dismiss the action on the ground that “he is not an executor of the estate of Frederick Edgar Johnston, deceased, and therefore he is not the proper party defendant.” Plaintiif then moved to amend the summons and complaint to name as defendant the “National Savings & Trust Co., Executor.” The District Court dismissed the action in its entirety, and denied the motion to amend as being moot. This appeal followed.

¶10Under the circumstances, the court could properly dismiss the complaint as to Mr. Baird personally; his name nowhere appears in the body of the complaint, and appellant does not urge that dismissal as to him was error. But we think the court erred in dismissing the entire action. The Trust Company had been served with a complaint which demanded relief against it in its capacity as executor. Evidently on the theory that it was not a party, it made no mo*692tion to quash or to dismiss. We think it was a party, and no good reason here appears for dismissing the action against it.

¶11The judgment of the District Court must therefore be vacated and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

¶12So ordered.

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