Estate of Gould v. McIntyre

237 A.2d 125, 126 Vt. 538, 1967 Vt. LEXIS 236
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedDecember 5, 1967
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 237 A.2d 125 (Estate of Gould v. McIntyre) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Gould v. McIntyre, 237 A.2d 125, 126 Vt. 538, 1967 Vt. LEXIS 236 (Vt. 1967).

Opinion

Smith, J.

This is an action for reformation of a deed brought in the Washington Court of Chancery. Hearings were held on September 26 and October 31, 1966. Findings of Fact were made and a Decree issued declaring the former deed given by the plaintiff to the defendants to be cancelled and nullified, and directing the plaintiff to deliver a new deed to the defendants. The decree also directed the defendant, Harold S. McIntyre, to pay to the plaintiff the sum of $408.06, found by the chancellor to be the unpaid balance of the purchase price on the premises. The defendants have appealed here from certain of the findings of fact made below, as well as from the decree.

Among the assets of the estate of the late Louis Gould was certain real estate located at 3 Cross Street in the City of Montpelier. This land had been acquired by Louis Gould by virtue of a warranty deed from the Lane Manufacturing Company, dated June 19, 1963, and can be described as having a frontage of SI feet on Cross Street.

On December 4, 1964, Daughly Gould, as executor of his father’s estate, conveyed to the defendants all the same land and premises that were conveyed to his father by the deed from the Lane Manufacturing Company. It is the contention of the plaintiff, and the chancellor so found, that this deed did not express the intention of the parties, and that by reason of such mistake the defendants were conveyed an additional parcel of land with a frontage of 21 feet on Cross Street, [540]*540a depth of 65 feet and a back east-west line of 15 feet to which they were not entitled.

Defendants first claim error in the chancellor’s finding that Daughly Gould was executor of his father’s estate at the time this action was brought, it being defendants’ contention that there is no proper party plaintiff in the action now before us.

While, as plaintiff asserts, the transcript in the case does not show the admission of Plaintiff’s 10, the certificate of appointment from the Probate Court for the District of Washington of Daughly Gould as administrator, the certificate of appointment is part of the record before us. The transcript does show that the Registrar of the Probate Court did testify that such appointment was made, and produced in open court her records showing such appointment. The transcript also shows that the chancellor states that in view of the testimony it was not necessary to admit the Probate Court records, and no objection was made by the defendant.

The evidence also was that while a decree of distribution was issued in the Gould estate before the bringing of this action, and that the insurance company who supplied the executor’s bond to Daughly Gould had been notified to cancel the same, that the executor had never been formally discharged. “The authority of an executor or administrator to represent an estate continues until the estate is fully settled unless he is removed, dies, or resigns, and neither the filing of a final account nor approval of the account operates as a removal or discharge without a formal order of discharge.” Atherton v. Hughes et al., 249 Ill. 317, 94 N.E. 546; 31 Am.Jur.2d. Executors and Administrators, p. 79.

Our statutes provide that a final discharge of an executor may be allowed by a probate court if such executor follows the procedure outlined in 14 V.S.A. Sec. 2107. Such procedure was not undertaken by the executor here, and no final discharge was recorded in the Probate Court for the District of Washington indicating that Daughly Gould was discharged as executor of his father’s estate.

An action to reform the deed and recover the land here claimed to have been mistakenly conveyed could not have been brought by an heir under the will of the late Louis Gould. An action of ejectment or other action to recover the seisin or possession of lands shall not be maintained by an heir until there is a decree of the probate court assigning such land to such heir, or the time for paying debts [541]*541has expired, unless the executor has surrendered the possession of the lands to such heir. 14 V.S.A. Sec. 1455. Nothing in the findings of fact, or the record before us, evidences in any way that the land here under dispute was ever decreed by the probate court to any heir of the Gould estate, or that possession of it was surrendered by the executor.

The land and the money here sought to be recovered are in the nature of newly discovered assets as to which the estate has not been fully administered. An order approving a final account and discharging an executor does not foreclose the executor from taking such necessary legal steps as may be required to collect and administer the assets undisposed of by the decree of distribution. See 31 Am.Jur.2d, Executors and Administrators, Sec. 124. In so doing, the executor could be acting under the provisions of 14 V.S.A. Sec. 1402, seeking to recover the property as trustees for the benefit of the persons entitled to it under the provisions of the decedent’s will.

Our next consideration is given to the exceptions of the defendants to Findings of Fact numbered 3, 4, 6, 16, 17 and 19. As the defendants assert all of these findings are to the point of ordering a reformation of the deed by reason of a mutual mistake as to the land intended to be conveyed. Defendants’ claim is that none of these findings are supported by “material, competent and relevant testimony.”

“This court must affirm the findings if there is any credible evidence to support them, and must construe those findings so as to support the judgment, if possible. * * * The evidence considered as a whole must be read in support of the findings, if reasonably possible. The weight of the evidence, the credibility of the witnesses and the persuasive effect of the testimony lies solely with the trier of fact.” Smith v. Lentini, Extr., 125 Vt. 526, 528, 220 A.2d 291, 294, and cases there cited.

The findings objected to disclose the factual situation now summarized.

The plaintiff executor agreed to sell and the defendants to purchase from the Gould Estate a portion of the real estate of the late Louis Gould, fronting on Cross Street for approximately 30 feet and extended south on its easterly boundary from Cross Street a distance of 122 feet to an iron pipe, then west parallel with Cross Street a distance of 46 feet, then north a distance of 65 feet, thence east a distance [542]*542of 15 feet, thence north again 65 feet to Cross Street. The defendants desired to purchase the lands in question so that they might have ingress and egress from their property located on Peck Place south of the lands just described.

It was agreed that the price of the land should be $1,100.00, to be paid for by the defendants in work, labor and services, with a deed to be given when the plaintiff was indebted to the defendants for such labor to an amount of $500.00. At a time when the plaintiff was indebted to the defendants in the sum of $673.49, the deed here sought to be reformed was delivered by the plaintiff to the defendants.

This deed, as before noted, conveyed to the defendants all the real estate previously conveyed to Lous Gould by the Lane Manufacturing Company. Defendants had a survey of the property conveyed to them under the deed and made claim to the entire frontage of 51 feet on Cross Street, which includes the land here in controversy.

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Bluebook (online)
237 A.2d 125, 126 Vt. 538, 1967 Vt. LEXIS 236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-gould-v-mcintyre-vt-1967.