Hughan v. Grimes

62 P. 326, 62 Kan. 258, 1900 Kan. LEXIS 36
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedOctober 6, 1900
DocketNo. 11,695
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 62 P. 326 (Hughan v. Grimes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hughan v. Grimes, 62 P. 326, 62 Kan. 258, 1900 Kan. LEXIS 36 (kan 1900).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Johnston, J.:

This is another controversy which has grown out of the contest of the Grimes will and of the settlement of the Grimes estate. The history of the litigation has been stated in the reports of prior adjudications. (Hudson v. Hughan, 56 Kan. 152, 42 Pac. [259]*259701; Hudson v. Barratt, ante, p. 137, 61 Pac. 737.) When the will was adjudged to be invalid by the district court and the case brought to this court for review, an order staying execution of the judgment and all proceedings in the trial court was asked for and allowed, upon the giving of a bond in the sum of $2000, conditioned that the plaintiff would pay all damages sustained by the defendants by reason of the order, if the judgment should be affirmed. That bond was given, but soon afterward, upon application, the order of stay was amended and modified so

“as to forbid the executor or any of the plaintiffs in error making any allowance or distribution of the es-state, and to forbid any further administration of the’ estate by such executor during the pendency of this cause in this court, it being the intention of the court that nothing further be done by the executor or the plaintiffs in error concerning this estate except to preserve and protect the property and to do what may be necessary for such preservation and protection until the decision of this cause on its merits.”

The order was also further modified so as to require the giving of a bond in the sum of $10,000, conditioned

‘ ‘ that the plaintiffs in error will pay to the defendants in error all damages which they may sustain by reason of this restraining order, if the judgment appealed from shall be affirmed.”

The bond provided for in this order was given on January 15, 1892, and it is upon this obligation that the present action is brought. The proceeding in. which the bond was given remained pending in this court until January 15, 1896, when the judgment of the district court setting aside the will was affirmed. It is alleged that between the giving of the bond and the affirmance of the judgment the contesting parties were kept out of the possession and control of the es[260]*260tate, during which the real property thereof shrunk greatly in actual value from decay and damage from the elements. It was also alleged that during the same time it depreciated in value from other causes, and for two-sevenths of the depreciation they asked judgment. A claim of damages was set up for attorneys’ fees in procuring the dissolution of the stay order, and another, for the failure to account for the personal estate which had been placed in the hands of the executor. For all these claims, judgment against the parties executing the bonds was asked in the sum of $20,000.

The case was tried before the court without a jury and findings of fact were made, in which it was found that while the stay was in force a part of the real estate depreciated in value from neglect and decay to the extent of $415, two-sevenths of which was awarded to the plaintiffs. It was also found that during the same time some of the real estate shrunk in value from other causes to the extent of $2280, but this shrinkage was not regarded as a liability against the defendants on the bond. There was a further finding that the reasonable value of the services of attorneys in defense of the case in the supreme court, wherein the stay was granted, in securing an affirmance of the judgment avoiding the will, was $1200, but these fees were not held to be an element of damages recoverable on the bond. The plaintiffs were awarded judgment for two-sevenths of the $415, amounting to $118.57, and they are here insisting that they were entitled to a much larger amount, under the findings of the court, while the defendants also complain of the award that was made against them.

The defendants were liable for all damages which were the direct and immediate result of the stay order. [261]*261By reason of that order the plaintiffs’ rights to enforce the judgment setting aside the will and to proceed to , acquire possession of their respective shares of the [’estate of Susan Grimes were suspended. The natural and proximate result of such suspension — that is, the loss actually sustained by being prevented from exercising acts of ownership over the real property then held by the executor, and being kept out of possession of the same — may be recovered. The bond was prospective only, and did not cover any past delinquencies or defaults. When it was executed and approved the personal estate had been disposed of by the executor, and therefore no liability could be asserted against the sureties on account of the disposition that may have been made of the personal estate. In measuring the damages to the remaining estate, we think the waste by reason of neglect and decay was properly included. The stay order in terms required the executor, Hudson, to preserve and protect the estate until the decision of the cause on its merits, and the bond was given in pursuance of the order. ■ The failure to preserve and protect the real estate was clearly a breach of the conditions of the bond, and the waste directly resulting from the stay is a liability against the obligors of the bond.

The defendants contend, in a cross-petition in error, that this and other items of damages were included in and determined by a partition suit between the same parties, which was begun after the affirmance of the judgment avoiding the will. Some of the circumstances disclosed strongly indicate that the judgment in partition was intended as a complete settlement of all claims and controversies between the parties, but the trial court did not in terms find that such was the fact, nor that the plaintiffs understood that the [262]*262damages resulting from the stay were included. The testimony upon which the findings are based is not in the record, and therefore the absence of a finding that the matter of damages was actually submitted' and determined in that action, together with the fact that damages for waste were awarded the plaintiffs, leaves no basis for defendants’ contention. They do argue that the plaintiffs should have set up the claim in the partition suit and are as much concluded by the j udgment as though it had been specifically alleged in the pleadings and expressly determined in the judgment. The damages, however, were not a lien upon the land, but arose from a step taken in another litigation. They had accrued, and constituted a distinct liability against defendants before the partition suit had commenced, and, in the absence of an intentional submission of this separate liability, they were not necessarily determined in that action.

Plaintiffs next contend that the shrinkage in value of the real estate other than physical depreciation is an element of damages recoverable on the bond. The fluctuations in the value of the real estate were immaterial to the plaintiffs unless it was or would have been placed on the market while the stay was in force. It does not appear that a sale was contemplated, nor that the plaintiffs did not intend to hold their shares of the property indefinitely.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
62 P. 326, 62 Kan. 258, 1900 Kan. LEXIS 36, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hughan-v-grimes-kan-1900.