IN RE McCOWIN’S ESTATE, 1 Del. Cas. LXII (1771)

Hilles’ Notebook, 3

Orphans’ Court of Delaware.
February, 1771.

In passing the administration account of John McCowin, the Court’s opinion was asked whether the account of a physician for his attendance and medicine exhibited to a man in his last illness should not be deemed a debt of the highest dignity?

THE COURT, after mature consideration, determined that a physician’s account for medicines etc., to a person in his last illness should in future be held and deemed a debt to be paid next to the funeral expenses, and prior to all others. And that from the necessity of the thing, it being supposed that, without this assurance, poor persons might often be left to languish, and perhaps perish for want of physical aid; and the law, taking no particular notice of such accounts, seemed to leave them much to the discretion of the court.