Bain v. Coats

244 S.W. 130, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 1238
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedOctober 18, 1922
DocketNo. 311-3641
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 244 S.W. 130 (Bain v. Coats) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bain v. Coats, 244 S.W. 130, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 1238 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1922).

Opinion

HAMILTON, J.

On November 20, 1913, W. G. Butler, Jr., of Karnes county died, giving, devising, and bequeathing, by the terms of his last will and testament his entire estate, after payment of his debts, to his surviving wife, Mrs. Ira Butler. The fourth and sixth paragraphs of that will are respectively as follows:

“4. I hereby constitute and appoint my friends A. J. Parker of Karnes City, Texas, and L. E. Bain, of Kenedy, Texas, executors of' my last will and testament, fully and completely to pay off and discharge all of my just debts, and if it is necessary in the administration of my estate to sell any of my property to pay my said debts, then I hereby authorize and direct my said executors to make such sales, as are necessary in order.to obtain funds with which to pay off said debts, but my said executors shall not be exempt from giving bond as required by law, in the administration of estates under the statutes of the state of Texas.”
“6. It is my will that no other action shall be had in the county court, in the administration of my estate than to prove, and record this will, to return an inventory and appraisement of my estate, to file, approve and record the bond of my executors or executor, as the case may be, and to require a report of all the acts of my executors, or executor, in the said administration of my estate.”

This will was probated on February 16, 1914. The above-named executors qualified, as such, on February 17, 1914, giving bond with J. L. Bain, E. C. Seale, and T. G. Butler as sureties. On the 2d day of May, 1917, ■the executors filed, in the county court of Karnes county, their final account, and, on the 26th day of May, 1917, that court entered judgment approving that account and discharging the executors and their sureties on the bond. In May, 1919, Mrs. Ira Butler married R. H. Coats. On July 17, 1919, she, joined by him, filed a petition, denominated by them a bill of review, in the county court of Karnes county, against L. E. Bain and A. J. Parker, individually and as executors of the estate, and against their sureties, as such, to set aside and vacate the order of the county court of Karnes county approving the final account of the executors, and discharging them and the sureties on their official bond, on the ground of fraud and misappropriation and misapplication of assets of the estate by the executors, and of fraud in procuring the decree of May 26, 1917. Neither-the original nor the first amended bill of review appears in the record. Only the second amended bill of review, filed in the county court on February 11, 1920, is contained therein.

The petition sets out the losses, mismanagement, etc., some generally and some specifically. It closes with prayer for the following relief:

“First, should the court find that the administration was an independent administration, and the court entering said order was without jurisdiction, your petitioner prays that said order be set aside in its entirety; second, should the court determine that said administration was not an independent administration, but one wholly within the jurisdiction of said court, and that for any reason alleged in this bill of review said order and judgment should be set aside, then your petitioner prays that said order be set aside in so far as it approved and found correct said final account and discharging said bondsman, and your petitioner further prays for costs and all other relief, special and general in law and in equity, petitioner .may be entitled to in the judgment of this court.”

Defendants in error’s “first supplemental petition,” filed in county court, March 5, 1920, contained no allegation of fact whatever. Their first trial amendment, filed May 29, 1920, alleges other acts of fraud and collusion between the executors and J. L. Bain and overreaching conduct on the part of L.E. Bain, and adds:

“The facts in support of each of the foregoing transactions are fully alleged in suits now pending, and plaintiffs say that they are informed and believe and charge the fact to be that the defendants expect to defend and to defeat all said causes of action in reliance upon the order of judgment of court here complained of, and, unless the same be set aside, the same will embarrass plaintiffs, if not defeat them, in the recovery of their moneys so wrongfully taken, and the defendants Bain and Parker wifi be thereby protected in withholding the same by virtue of the fraudulent order or judgment procured to be entered in this court by them.”

In this they “pray as in their second amended original petition, and for general relief.”

A second trial amendment, filed by defendants in error on March 5, 1920, alleging more acts of fraud, etc., closes as follows:

“Plaintiffs say that said account by reason of the foregoing specific items, said account contains so many irregular and improper charges, and, the order of May 26, 1917, having been entered without legal service and notice, that [132]*132the court should require the executors to re-account and submit themselves to full examination thereon. That if said order be not set aside the estate will suffer the loss of the unjust items specifically pleaded, and plaintiffs charge that in addition a reaccounting will disclose further items in a large amount to which the executors would be indebted to this estate. Wherefore plaintiffs pray that said order be set aside, a reaccounting ordered, and as in their second amended original petition, and for general relief.”

On the same day that defendants in error filed the petition to set aside the judgment of the county court of Karnes county, July 17, 1019, they filed, in the district court of Karnes county, suit No. 2187, against A. J. Parker and L. E. Bain, as executors, and in their individual capacities, and T. G. Butler, E. 0. Seale, and J. E. Bain as sureties on the bond of Parker and Bain,' executors, and as individuals, for $100,000, alleging in general terms that the executors, Parker and Bain, had “misapplied and appropriated to their own use and benefit property and assets of the estate of W. G. Butler, Jr., deceased, of the value of $100,000, and praying for judgment for that amount.

Two days later, on July 19, 1919, defendants in error filed in the district court of Karnes county a suit, No. 2188, to vacate and annul a deed executed by the executors and Mrs. Ira Butler, conveying to J. L. Bain 900 acres of the W. G. Butler estate, and to recover $18,567.99, alleged to be due J. I». Bain for that portion of a 3,018-acre tract of the Butler land, conveyed to him by the executors, which J. L. Bain had resold. The money sought to be recovered was the unpaid portion of the purchase price of that portion of the 8,018-acre tract resold by J. L. Bain; and the 900 acres sought to be recovered was the unsold portion of the 3,018-acre tract. The petition alleged fraud and collusion by and between the executors and J. L. Bain, in the purchase of that land by Bain. The prayer was for:

.“Judgment canceling, vacating, and annulling said deed of conveyance, so executed and delivered by said defendants, A. J. Parker, L. E. Bain, and plaintiff to the defendant J. E. Bain, of date February 19, 1917, and recorded in volume 53, p. 578 et seq., of the Deed Records of Karnes County, Texas, and fot the recovery of the said tract of 900 acres and the tract of 146.2 acres, being that portion of 3,018 acres unsold, at this date by the said J. L.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
244 S.W. 130, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 1238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bain-v-coats-texcommnapp-1922.