Giddens v. Reddoch

92 So. 848, 207 Ala. 297, 25 A.L.R. 381, 1921 Ala. LEXIS 362
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedOctober 27, 1921
Docket4 Div. 874, 880.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 92 So. 848 (Giddens v. Reddoch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Giddens v. Reddoch, 92 So. 848, 207 Ala. 297, 25 A.L.R. 381, 1921 Ala. LEXIS 362 (Ala. 1921).

Opinions

McCLELLAN, j.

The original bill sought the sale for division of certain town property in Luverne and 50 acres of farm land. The more material questions result from the cross-bill of the Bank of Luverne, a mortgagee, the contention being, in effect, that original complainants (appellants on main appeal) and others to be indicated were not entitled to an interest in the land, or that their rights were subordinate to those of the bank as mortgagee. This property was acquired, originally, by a partnership called Reddoch Bros., operating a mercantile business in Luverne. It was conveyed to the partnership so named. The members of this firm were C. E. and R. G. Reddoch. The father of these men died in 1901. Surviving him were his widow, Mrs. L. M. Reddoch (appellant) and seven children, viz. C. E., R. G„ J. H., I. R., J. D„ J. C., and Lena Reddoch, the latter the appellant Mrs. Giddens. Supplemented by small funds of their own, C. E. and R. G. Reddoch established the partnership of Reddoch Bros, through funds derived from their father’s estate and insurance on his life, no settlement or division of which- appears to have been made among those entitled thereto, except that to the widow was some time later conveyed the “home place farm,” after which she was credited at the store of the firm with the annual rents from that if not from other lands formerly owned by the father.

C. E. Reddoch died in 1904. In his will, which was duly probated with R. G. Red-doch as executor, he provided:

“It is my will that my interest in the business of Reddoch Bros, may be retained in the business for such time as may be agreed on between my surviving partner, R. G." Reddoch, and the heirs above mentioned as they respectively become of age.”

The heirs alluded to in his will were his brothers and sister. His mother, Mrs. L. M. Reddoch (appellant), was not mentioned in his will, and hence took nothing under his will. In 1905 R. G. Reddoch died, having taken no affirmative steps in respect of the agreement contemplated by the will of his testator, his deceased partner, nor engaged in any effort to segregate and distribute his brother’s interest in the firm. According to the evidence, there was no effectual- compliance with the quoted direction of the will. All that R. G. Reddoch did was promptly to take in as a partner his brother J. H. Red-doch, and to continue the business in the firm name of Reddoch Bros. However, the omission, if such it was, to meet the will’s condition for the retention of O. E. Reddoch’s interest in the original firm, is unimportant, since the death of R. G. Reddoch completely dissolved the original partnership and rendered impossible the observance of G. E. Red-doch’s desire that the business continue with R. G. Reddoch, jHis designated surviving partner, a member. And it .may be that the result of R. G. Reddoeh’s introduction of J. H. Reddoch into the firm — though J. I-I. Red-doch paid nothing for a partner’s interest therein — was to evince the surviving partner’s election not to favor or follow the direction of his brother’s will. In any event, the death of R. G. Reddoch in 1905 dissolved the partnership and interposed these complications : An unsettled partnership in which O. E. and R. G. Reddoch had been partners; the administration of the two estates of G. E. and R. G. Reddoch, the latter leaving no will, thereby admitting, differently from O. E., the mother, Mrs. L. M. Red-doch, as a beneficiary under the statutes of descent and distribution; and vacating R. G. Reddoch’s wholly unexecuted executor-ship of O. E. Reddoch’s estate as well as terminating R. G. Reddoch’s erstwhile function as a surviving partner of the original firm.

On April 26, 1906, J. H. Reddoch was appointed administrator with the will annexed of O. E. Reddoch’s estate.- In 1905 J. H. Red-doch was appointed administrator of the estate of R. G. Reddoch, deceased. In the estate of the former, O. E. Reddoch, the administrator with the will annexed took no action. In the estate of the latter, It. G. Reddoch, he went through the form of a *299 settlement, after reporting the debts paid, unto a decree in which the respective shares of each of the heirs at law and distributees were ascertained and determined by the probate ^court, and took from each a receipt in full therefor, though it is undisputedly shown that no sale of property of the estate was effected converting the estate into money as the receipts recite was done, and no money was in fact then paid to any of the distribu-tees of the estate of R. G. Reddoch, deceased. Under the apt authority of Vincent v. Martin, 79 Ala. 540, this effort at a final settlement by J. H. Reddoch as administrator of the estate of R. G-. Reddoch, deceased, was void. However, at a later stage of the opinion account will be taken of this “settlement” for its bearing upon -an issue of law upon which the cross-appellant, Bank of Buverne, relied for protection or relief. .

Immediately after the death of R. G. Red-doch, I. R. Reddoch became a member of the firm still called Reddoch Bros., entering it on the invitation of J. H. Reddoch and paying-nothing, as did J. H. Reddoch when on R. G. Reddoch’s invitation he became a partner on the decease of O. E. Reddoch, paying nothing for an interest or share in the business. The firm of Reddoch Bros., composed of J. H. and I. R. Reddoch, pursued the like business until 1913, collecting and appropriating to the firm’s interest the insurance on goods and buildings burned in 1906-07, the insurance on R. G. Reddoch’s life, and probably the proceeds of the sale of some land the original firm had acquired before the death of G. E. Reddoch, at no time accounting to the mother, other brothers, and sister for whatever interest they had in the corpus of the firm property or in' the life or property insurance collected or in the proceeds of the sale of land sold by the firm when composed of J. H. and I. R. Reddoch, unless some character of such accounting was afforded by the “final settlement” of R. G. Reddoch’s estate by J. H. Reddoch, administrator, to which we have already referred, and that will now be stated.

On November 9,1906, J. H. Reddoch, as administrator of the estate of R. G. Reddoch, deceased, filed his “full inventory” of the assets, real and personal, of the estate of his intestate. The inventory defined R. G. Red-doch’s interest in all property, real and personal, as being seven-twelfths, including, as we understand the descriptions, the real estate involved in this litigation. The proportional statement in the inventory proceeded upon the theory that R. G. Reddoch held an undivided one-half interest, with the late O. E. Reddoch, in the original firm, and under G. E. Reddoch’s will had acquired a one-sixth-interest in O. E. Reddoch’s half interest in the properties of the original firm, and that the remaining five-twelfths interest in the properties, real and personal, listed on the inventory, was respectively held by the surviving brothers and sister, now Mrs. Gid-dens; and yet the latterly rendered probate decree before mentioned concluded in the mother’s favor (Mrs. L. M. Reddoch) for one-half of the “money” into which, it was avowed, the estate of R. G. Reddoch had been converted. Recurring to the recitals of the inventory, the order of the probate court appointing appraisers of the property of the estate of R. G. Reddoch, deceased, produced an appraisal consistent with the terms of the inventory, and it was so approved. It is manifest from the probate court record of the administration of the estate of R. G.

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Bluebook (online)
92 So. 848, 207 Ala. 297, 25 A.L.R. 381, 1921 Ala. LEXIS 362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/giddens-v-reddoch-ala-1921.