We are satisfied that the complainants' have established their kinship to the intestate, and their right to be recognized as entitled to his personal estate, and that the persons to whom it was distributed had no right whatever to it, and that the distribution made was procured by fraud practiced upon the probate court by Henry Murta, one of the distributees.
Finding the equity of the case to be with the complainants, it remains to examine the objections of a technical character to granting them relief which have been ably urged by counsel who have appeared on behalf of the committee of the lunatic and zealousiy represented her rights. The jurisdiction of this court, sitting in equity, to grant relief in cases where there has been fraud in obtaining judgments or decrees in other courts, where the fraud is clearly proved, is not seriously questioned, and we take it to be fully established. Gould v. Gould, 3 Story, 516 ; Story's Equity, 252a.
The committee of the lunatic was represented in the distribution by the same counsel who represented Henry Murta, and her claim rested entirely on the affidavits hereinbefore mentioned, which were filed on his behalf; so that, although her committee, and of course she herself, were in one sense innocent of participation in misleading the probate court, they reaped the fruits of Henry Murta's conduct, and have no better title to the money distributed to her than he had to the sums which he obtained.
The points principally relied upon by counsel for the committee are as follows:
First. It is objected that Rosanna Andoe, the lunatic, has not been summoned. Process was prayed against her, and also against her duly-appointed committee, who is at present acting for her. The subpœna against her was returned served by service on her committee. Her committee, although not answering in her name, has answered fully in his character of committee, and has presented every defence which he could have presented if answering in her name, and he has stubbornly resisted the pretensions of the complainants, and has been assisted by able counsel in defending his rights.
