| Summary: | In 1827 Reddin Lynch died intestate, leaving a widow, Nancy, and an infant child, Elizabeth, the present plaintiff. Nancy subsequently married the defendant, Willie Bradley. Lynch left several slaves and a tract of land. After Nancy Bradley's death, Willie was appointed guardian of the infant Elizabeth and received her share of four slaves, a 23-year-old man and three children, from Reddin Lynch's administrator. In 1829 Bradley, as guardian, filed a petition at the Court of Equity in which he stated that the profits accruing from Elizabeth's land and slaves were too small to pay for her education and maintenance, and that it was therefore necessary that some part of the estate be sold; he prayed for the sale of the land. The court consented to the move, and the land was sold to Bradley himself for [dollars] 500. Bradley continued to be Elizabeth's guardian until her marriage to Nicholas Harrison in 1843. The present bill, brought by the Harrisons, alleged that Willie Bradley was desirous of obtaining his ward's land and so let it go to waste under his guardianship so as to depress its value; that its true value was between [dollars] 1,200 and [dollars] 1,500, and that several respectable persons in the neighbourhood had refused to assent to any lower valuation; and that Bradley seldom hired out Elizabeth's slaves and refused to account for their hire when he did. The bill prayed that the sale of the land to Bradley be declared fraudulent and that he be compelled to make a financial account of his time as Elizabeth's guardian. Willie Bradley's answer stated that he had not allowed the land to go to waste, but that he had been unable to find a tenant for it and that after he had decided to sell it for the good of Elizabeth he had received no bids for it and so determined to buy it himself for its true value as near as he could ascertain. He also stated that after Elizabeth's marriage he had accounted fully with her husband, Harrison, for his financial management under her minority and that Harrison had been satisfied with this account. The bill was dismissed in the Superior Court, and the plaintiffs appealed. The Supreme Court criticised the decision of the Court of Equity to rely on the valuation of a ward's land given by that ward's guardian, but otherwise upheld Bradley's actions as being fair and in Elizabeth's interests. Bill dismissed.
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