Cleary v. Neville

235 N.W. 666, 121 Neb. 15, 1931 Neb. LEXIS 81
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 26, 1931
DocketNo. 27587
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 235 N.W. 666 (Cleary v. Neville) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleary v. Neville, 235 N.W. 666, 121 Neb. 15, 1931 Neb. LEXIS 81 (Neb. 1931).

Opinion

Paine, J.

This was a suit to collect two promissory notes against the estate of Anna Neville, deceased, in the probate court of Dawson county. The claim for the balance due on said notes was disallowed by the county court, and upon an appeal to the district court it was tried there and the claim was denied and the action dismissed, and claimant has appealed the case to this court.

The testimony disclosed that Anna Neville died intestate May 25, 1925, and letters of administration were issued to her son, John Neville, on July 20, 1925. An inventory of her estate, filed the same day, disclosed 420 acres of real estate, valued at $28,000, and chattel property listed to the value of $2,320.

At the time of her death the deceased was indebted to the Security State Bank of Eddyville for money borrowed and invested in the land she- owned at death. One note was dated July 7, 1923, for $4,294, bearing 10 per cent, interest, and one note for $418.76, dated September 28, 1922, bearing 10 per cent, interest, upon which claim payments had been made by the administrator of the estate after the same was filed. The said bank failed in 1923 and F. J. Cleary was appointed receiver, but the actual work of collecting the assets of the bank was in charge Of George C. Gage, agent of the guaranty fund commission. A claim was filed by the receiver against the estate [17]*17on December 7, 1925, for a total sum of $4,457.20, due on the two notes. Objections were filed by W. A. Stewart, attorney for the administrator, on the ground that the claim was not filed' within the time allowed by the court for filing claims, and that it was not a valid claim against the estate. However, on May 12, 1926, a letter was written by Attorney Stewart for the estate to Receiver Cleary, saying that there had been paid by the administrator on these notes from the sale of personal property a sufficient sum to leave a net balance on the notes, without interest, of $2,208.54, which might be paid out of the sale of the incumbered land. A letter was written by the receiver, F. J. Cleary, to Attorney Stewart, asking if his claim had been allowed, and the reply was written in ink on this letter and signed by W. A. Stewart, saying that the agreed compromise can be entered in the county court at any time, but they would have to sell the land to pay the claims. F. J. Cleary, as receiver, filed application in the district court for Dawson county, Nebraska, to compromise the claim against the Anna Neville estate, setting out in the third paragraph “that your receiver has an offer from the attorney for the Anna Neville estate to pay the sum of $2,307.54, your receiver being required to waive the accrued interest on said claim,” which application was filed in the district court for Dawson county on June 10, 1926, and on the same day Honorable Isaac J. Nisley, district judge, entered an order authorizing settlement of the claim in the sum of $2,307.54. However, payment was never made in accordance with the offer of compromise made by the attorney for the estate and authorized by the order of the district judge.

On January 1, 1929, Miles N. Lee, of Arcadia, Nebraska, purchased the remaining assets from the receiver of the Security State Bank at Eddyville and became the owner and holder of the notes in controversy. Proceedings in the county court, which led to the rejection of said claim, were based upon the claim itself, which was filed December 7, 1925, the objections to said claim, filed by the attorney for the administrator, the final report of the administra[18]*18tor, petition for discharge, the answer to the petition filed by Miles N. Lee, the assignee of the receiver, and the reply thereto, and after an adverse ruling in the county court the same was tried de novo upon the same pleadings in the district court. In re Estate of Gamble, 91 Neb. 199; Fitch v. Martin, 83 Neb. 124. On April 25, 1930, a judgment was entered in the district court, rejecting the claim of the assignee. Motion for new trial was overruled on May 15, 1930, and the same was appealed to this court.

The issues in the district court appear to have been contested upon three propositions: First, that fraud was practiced by the administrator and his attorney, which kept the claimant from filing his claim in time; second, that there was no valid order of the county court fixing the time for filing the claims and properly designating the newspaper in which to give the notice; third, that the failure to file said claim in proper time was waived by the administrator.

The district court found on the first proposition that there was no evidence of any inducements which delayed the filing of the claim in the time required by law, but did find that the attorney for the administrator had made offers of compromise, which offers had been accepted and approved by the district court, but that no effort was made, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the claimant filing his claim in time. On the third proposition the district court found that the administrator had no authority to waive the bar of the statute as to the time for filing claims.

The argument before this court and the discussion in the briefs submitted have to do principally with the second proposition, i. e., that no valid order of the county court had ever been entered fixing the time for filing claims or properly designating the newspaper in which the notice should be published. The section of the statute was section 1336, Comp. St. 1922, which was amended in 1929 (Laws 1929, ch. 67, sec. 5) by changing the time of publication from four weeks to three weeks, and with the change of this one word the same is section 30-601, Comp. [19]*19St. 1929, and the last part of said section as published in the 1922 Statutes, in force at the time of the trial of this case, and referred to in the briefs, reads as follows: “Provided, said judge shall, within forty days after the issuance of letters testamentary' or of administration, give notice of the date of the hearing of claims against the deceased and the limit of time for the presentation of claims by creditors, which notice shall be given by posting in four public places in said county, or by publication in a legal newspaper of said county at least four consecutive weeks, or in any manner which the court may direct.”

The vital question at issue can be stated as follows: Does this section requiring the judge to give notice of the date of the hearing, either by posting or by publication in a legal newspaper, require that the county judge first make an order to that effect, which shall be the basis for the notice which is published?

The appellee contends that the steps taken in the county court were regular and in strict compliance with the plain, mandatory provisions of the law. Such notice, drawn by the county judge, together with the affidavit of the publisher that the same was published for four weeks in the Dawson County Pioneer, the first publication being on the 24th day of July, 1925, and the last publication on August 21, 1925, is set out in the bill of exceptions as exhibit 11, and reads as follows:

“Notice to Creditors of Estate. State of Nebraska, Dawson County, ss. In the County Court.

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Bluebook (online)
235 N.W. 666, 121 Neb. 15, 1931 Neb. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleary-v-neville-neb-1931.