| Summary: | In his will, William P Little left to his wife Ann all his slaves which came by her and lent her the remainder of his estate, real and personal, for life. He appointed Ann and their two sons executors, and gave them full power to sell any part of my estate, either real or personal, whenever they may think proper to do so. The plaintiffs in this suit were the children of Little's deceased daughter Minerva, whose husband had also died. The bill, filed against Ann Little and her surviving children, stated that Little's executors sold large quantities of valuable land in North Carolina and Tennessee and misappropriated the proceeds in applying them in paying the testator's debts. The plaintiffs contended that the debts should have been paid from Little's personal estate only. The prayer was for the plaintiffs to receive one seventh of the value of the personal estate remaining after the payment of the debts and one seventh of the total value of the real estate. The answers stated that the testator was about [dollars] 25,000 in debt when he died; that nearly all of the 60 or 70 slaves owned by the testator would have had to have been sold to meet the debts solely from the personal estate; and that the executors felt it better to sell some unproductive land to meet the debts instead of some of the slaves. The Supreme Court ruled that although, given the amount of his debt and the circumstances of his property, it might reasonably be supposed that Little had intended that much of his debt be paid by selling land, there was no direction to this effect in the will. The debts should therefore have been paid out of the estate in the order prescribed by the law for use in circumstances in which directions were not given by the testator, with the realty not being touched until the personalty was exhausted.
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