Buffington v. Bronson

61 Ohio St. (N.S.) 231
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 28, 1899
StatusPublished

This text of 61 Ohio St. (N.S.) 231 (Buffington v. Bronson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Buffington v. Bronson, 61 Ohio St. (N.S.) 231 (Ohio 1899).

Opinion

Williams, J.

On the 20th day of November, 1893, the plaintiffs in error, J. P. Buffington and John Reuter, became sureties for Charles E. Bron[232]*232son, on hi s bond as executor of the last will and testament of Maria Lehman, deceased, late of Defiance county. The bond was in the sum of one thousand dollars, and conditioned according to law. In March, 1894, they made their application to the probate court to compel the executor to render an account, and to indemnify them by bond, with sureties, against their liability. The application was sustained by the court, and, in pursuance of its order, Bronson with the other defendants in error as his sureties, executed and filed in the probate court on the 3rd day of April, 1894, the following bond:

“Know all men by these presents that wc, Charles E. Bronson, as principal, and J. M. Sanders and Emanuel Miller, are held and firmly bound unto J. P. Buffington and John Reuter, in the sum of eight hundred ($800.00) dollars, for the payment of which, well and truly to be made, we do hereby bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators.
Witness our hands and seals this 31st day of March, 1894.
“The condition of this obligation is such, that Avhereas the above named J. P. Buffington and John Reuter are sureties for the said Charles E. Bronson, in a certain bond as executor of the estate of Maria Lehman.
“Now, therefore, if the said Charles E. Bronson shall save and keep the said J. P. Buffington and John Reuter harmless from all loss or damage by reason of being sureties on the said bond for Charles E. Bronson as such executor of the estate, then this obligation to be void, otherwise, to- be and remain in full force and virtue in law.
“Emanuel Miller.”
“J. M. Sanders,
“Charles E. Bronson,

[233]*233. This bond was approved by the court on the 14th day of April, 1894, and the executor remained in office until the December following, when his final account was settled, and his resignation tendered and accepted, and Josiah McElroy appointed his successor. On the settlement of the executor’s account the court found there was a balance of $506.91, in his hands subject to distribution, one-half of which he had, on settlement of his first account, been ordered to pay to Mary E. Wank, who the court found was entitled thereto under the will, and the other half he was ordered to pay to his successor, the administrator de bonis non with the will annexed. Mary E. Wank, after due demand, brought suit against Bronson and the sureties on his bond, to recover the amount so ordered to be paid to her, and recovered judgment for the same, which, amounting, with interest and costs, to the sum of $284.14, was paid by the sureties. The administrator brought a like action to recover the amount which the executor was ordered to pay to him, and recovered judgment therefor, which the sureties on the executor’s bond also paid. These sureties, after the payment of the Wank judgment, commenced the first of the actions below, against the defendants in error, on the indemnity bond executed by them, to recover the amount which the plaintiffs had been compelled to pay in satisfaction of the judgment; and, after the payment of the judgment recovered by the administrator, commenced the second of the actions below, against the same parties, on the same bond, for the recovery of the amount paid on that judgment. The petitions alleged, substantially, the facts already stated. The answer in each, case set up as a defense, that the money, for the payment of which the executor was in [234]*234default, on account of which default the judgments against the plaintiffs were recovered, came to the hands of the executor before the execution of the indemnity bond, and distribution thereof according to law had been ordered by the probate court on the settlement of a prior account of the executor ; and that, no assets of the estate were received by him after the indemnity bond was given; and furthermore, “that there, was no consideration at any time moving from said Charles E. Bronson, or the said plaintiffs for the execution and delivery of said indemnity bond.” In the second case the answer alleged as an additional defence, that at the time the judgment of the administrator was rendered against the plaintiffs in error, they extended the time for its payment for a period of sixty days, without the knowledge or consent of the defendants, and without any consideration to them. These allegations of the answers were put in issue.

The defendants prevailed in the trial court in both cases, and they are brought here on error to judgments of affirmance by the circuit court, and have been argued and submitted together.

The facts constituting the plaintiffs’ cause of action, in each of the cases, were established on the trial by the records of the probate and common pleas courts, and the sheriff’s execution docket. The defendants introduced in evidence, an entry on the records of the probate court, showing that on the settlement of the executor’s first account, in December, 1893, a balance of $506.91 was found in his hands subject to distribution, one half of which he was then ordered to pay to Mary E. Wank, “and keep the remainder of said $506.91, invested on interest with good and sufficient security, and to pay to the said Samantha McElroy, the interest thereon [235]*235from time to time, as required by the terms of said will and bond, reducing the remainder of the property and choses in action in his hands into money, and to report his proceedings to this court, together with such further report as the law may require.” This balance so found in the hands of the executor and ordered distributed, remained undistributed by him when his final account was settled in December, 1894; and on that settlement he was charged up with the whole amount, and an order of distribution thereof then made as has already been stated.

The question is thus presented whether the defendants are bound to indemnify the plaintiffs as sureties on the executor’s bond, against loss or damage suffered by them in the payment of liabilities arising from the failure of the executor to make proper distribution of money undistributed when the indemnity bond was executed, and which was thereafter, on settlemet of his final account, found to be in his hands, and then ordered to be paid by him according to law and the will, it being shown that he had theretofore received the money and been ordered on settlement of a prior account to make distribution and investment of the same; or, are they bound only for such liabilities as the plaintiffs should incur from the failure of the executor to make proper application of moneys and effects of the estate which came to his hands after the execution and approval of the indemnifying bond?

The indemnity bond was executed and approved in conformity with section 6208, Revised Statutes, which provides that: “If any executor or administrator shall waste, or unfaithfully administer the estate, the court grant[236]

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Bluebook (online)
61 Ohio St. (N.S.) 231, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/buffington-v-bronson-ohio-1899.