The precise question in this case was decided in the courts of Massachusetts in the case of Talmage v. Chapel (16 Mass., 69), where it was held, in an action upon a judgment already recovered in favor of the plaintiff as administrator, in the State of New York, that the action could be sustained by the plaintiff in his own name, and not as administrator. The court say in the opinion : “ The debt was due to him, he being answerable for it to the estate of the intestate.” “ An administrator here (in Massachusetts) could not maintain an action upon this judgment, not being privy to it. Nor could he maintain an action on the original contract; for the defendants might plead in bar the judgment recovered against them in New York. The debt sued for is in truth due to the plaintiff in his personal capacity. For he makes himself accountable for it by bringing his action ; and he may well declare that the debt is due to himself.” I am not aware that the precise question has been adjudicated in the courts of this State. But the reason of the rule for promoting justice, as laid down in 16 Massachusetts, is as strong in this State as in Massachusetts. In Bright v. Currie (5 Sandf., 437), Justice Bosworth states the rule to be, that an administrator in one State may sue, in his individual capacity, on a judgment recovered'by him in another State as administrator. And the same rule is laid down by the chancellor in Lawrence v. Lawrence (3 Barb. Ch., 74), who cites the case in 16 Mass., 71, with approval.
The complaint states that there are no creditors of the estate of said Dickson, deceased, residing in the State of New York; and this fact, if proved, would show that the rule established as to executors and administrators, suing in our courts, would hardly apply if the action had been in the name of plaintiffs as executors.
The rule laid down in 16 Massachusetts can work no injustice ; on the other hand, it gives a remedy in cases where, without it, no remedy would seem to exist.
The order sustaining the demurrer should be affirmed with costs, with leave to defendants to amend their answer within twenty days, on payment of costs.
Judgment accordingly.