Hooker v. Hoskyns

1964 OK 45, 388 P.2d 493, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 485
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 3, 1964
DocketNo. 39993
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1964 OK 45 (Hooker v. Hoskyns) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hooker v. Hoskyns, 1964 OK 45, 388 P.2d 493, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 485 (Okla. 1964).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Justice.

The case of Hooker v. Hoskyns, Okl., 328 P.2d 404, was an appeal from a judgment of the District Court of Tulsa County, upon trial de novo, affirming a judgment of the County Court of that county, awarding fees to the special administrators of the estate of Flora B. Barton, deceased, as well as fees to the attorneys for such special administrators, and refusing to surcharge the special administrators with the interest allowed to accrue by the failure to pay federal and state estate taxes when due. Our opinion in such case affirmed that part of the trial court’s judgment awarding fees to the attorneys but reversed that portion of the judgment of the lower court refusing to surcharge the special administrators for their failure to pay federal and state estate taxes when due thereby allowing interest to accrue on such amounts. Tono L. Hooker, administrator of the estate of Flora B. Barton, Deceased, and Tono L. Hooker and J. D. Hooker, individually, were the plaintiffs in error, and Chandos A. Hoskyns, the surviving Co-Special Administrator of the estate of Flora B. Barton, Deceased, and Estelle C. Barton, Administratrix of the Estate of Charles O. Barton, deceased, Co-Special Administrator of the estate of Flora B. Barton, Deceased, were the defendants in error. The parties to the instant" appeal are identical to those of Hooker v. Hos-kyns, supra, and occupy the same position herein as they did in that cause.

After the decision in Hooker v. Hoskyns, supra, and upon remand to the district court, in that court the parties stipulated that $7,088.04 was the net amount of interest to be surcharged against the special administrators. Also, the parties stipulated that the county judge who had originally heard the matter could hear and determine the amount of fees, if any, to which the special administrators were entitled. It was further stipulated and agreed that he, as special master, could consider all proceedings he had theretofore conducted in the matter as well as all the pleadings, casemade and documented evidence previously filed in such cause.

After a hearing the special master “recommended that the special administrators be allowed a statutory fee of $1,700.00 and $1,300.00 for extraordinary services and the expenses as above outlined in the sum of $1,432.00.”

The trial court adopted such report and surcharged the special administrators in the net amount of $2,656.04. The special administrators tendered $2,656.04, in payment of the trial court’s judgment. Plaintiffs in error refused the tender and perfected this appeal.

For reversal plaintiffs in error advance two propositions. The first is that “The Trial Court erred in allowing the special' administrators any fee whatsoever.” For the reasons hereinafter discussed, we do. not agree.

Plaintiffs in error contend that “if the present order of the District Court is sustained there will be remaining in the estate only $2,792.95 (plus the jewelry) with which to repay Tono L. Hooker and J. D. Hooker the remaining balance owed to them by the estate of $6,530.73 which they loaned it in order to get rid of a Federal estate tax claim of $18,143.54 and substitute in its place an estate tax refund of $7,003.22, to say nothing of paying a fee to Tono L. Hooker for his long and faithful services as administrator, or a fee to his attorneys whose files on this estate are at least six inches thick.”

In the case of Hooker v. Hoskyns, supra, in urging reversal of the trial court’s judgment plaintiffs in error argued that [495]*495the special administrators should he denied fees, and surcharged because they negligently and carelessly failed and neglected to pay estate taxes as the same became due and payable. In that case we sustained such contention as to surcharging the special administrators, but left to the discretion of the trial court the matter of their compensation.

In that case at page 414 of 328 P.2d the following language summarized our determination of such argument:

" * * * Since the record before us does not disclose the exact date of the order of the county court * * and we cannot determine the exact amount of interest with which the special administrators should be surcharged, the judgment appealed from is reversed and the cause remanded with instructions to the trial court to determine such date and such amounts in accordance with the views herein-above expressed and to surcharge the special administrators accordingly, subject, of course, to such offsets as the special administrators may show themselves entitled by virtue of interest earned by the assets of the estate after the date the estate taxes were due which would not have been earned had such assets been converted to cash and applied to the payments of the estate taxes, and, in the discretion of the court, by virtue of the fee allowed or which court may determine should have been allowed the special administrators(Emphasis added.)

In the syllabus of the case of Ray v. J. I. Case Plow Works Co., 176 Okl. 96, 54 P.2d 669, we held:

“Where a matter is presented to this court on a third appeal and has formerly been determined by the opinions rendered herein, this court will examine the record, and, where no new question is involved, will dismiss the same as without merit,”

The fact that the special administrators were surcharged as a result of their failure to pay certain estate taxes when due thereby requiring the paying of interest thereon would not of itself necessarily deprive the special administrators of the right to compensation for the services rendered by them during the five years they so served.

The author in 34 C.J.S. Executors and Administrators § 876, pp. 1046, 1047 and 1048, states:

“The general rule is that an executor or administrator who has been guilty of fraud, willful default, gross negligence, or other misconduct in the administration of the estate, by reason of which the estate has suffered detriment, may be deprived of all or a part of the compensation to which he would otherwise be entitled, although there is also authority for the view that the representative is not to be deprived of compensation by reason of any fault, mismanagement, or * * negligence or fraud * *

In the case of In re Cook’s Estate, 193 Okl. 400, 144 P.2d 105, in the first paragraph of the syllabus, we held:

“An executor who has been removed from mismanagement of the affairs -of the estate is not as a matter of law thereby deprived of compensation for his services as such executor.”

Therein we further held that the awarding of compensation to an executor who has been removed because of mismanagement of the affairs of the estate is within the discretion of the trial judge.

However, as stated in Hansen v. Cunningham, Okl., 285 P.2d 432, “the discretion vested in a trial court is a sound legal discretion to be applied in accordance with recognized principles of law, rather than an arbitrary discretion to be exercised at will by a trial court.” As stated in the case of Russell v. Margo, 180 Okl. 24, 67 P.2d 22, we will examine the entire record in determining whether a trial court has abused its discretion or acted arbitrarily. In view of all the circumstances of this case we determine that the allowance by [496]*496the trial court of $1300.00 to the special administrators for extraordinary services was not warranted.

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Bluebook (online)
1964 OK 45, 388 P.2d 493, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 485, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hooker-v-hoskyns-okla-1964.