In re DeLisio

24 Pa. D. & C. 169, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 364
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedSeptember 5, 1935
Docketno. 6324
StatusPublished

This text of 24 Pa. D. & C. 169 (In re DeLisio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re DeLisio, 24 Pa. D. & C. 169, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 364 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1935).

Opinion

Heiligman, J.,

This is the audit of an account of a guardian of a weak-minded person, the guardianship having ended by reason of the death of the ward. The original guardian, Alfonso DeLisio, appointed July 26, 1932, by proceedings under the Act of May 28, 1907, P. L. 292, was removed by decree dated July 10, 1934, and the present guardian appointed. The [170]*170latter decree also provided that the original guardian and his surety should not be discharged from liability until his account was duly vouched, after notice, etc. His account and petition for discharge were filed on the same day, namely, July 10, 1934, but no action was taken thereon, except as just mentioned. According to said account there was no balance in the hands of the original guardian.

On February 1, 1935, the ward died and an administrator was duly appointed for his estate. The present guardian thereupon filed its account, together with a petition and supplemental petition for confirmation, distribution and discharge of guardian, all of which are now before the court. The account contains as credits three items inserted contrary to Rule 99 of the Rules of Court. The first of these, $156.50, counsel fees and costs of appointing the substituted guardian, paid at the time, we approve, but the fees and commissions to the guardian, paid at the time of filing the account we do not approve but strike from the account. The balance for distribution is thereby increased by $461.84. The supplemental petition properly asks for an allowance to the guardian of 5 percent on principal, or $386.84, which is allowed, and an attorney’s fee of $200. Whether this is in addition to the $156.50 already paid, we have no means of knowing. However, $200 is sufficient to cover all services, and accordingly we allow the balance of the $200 not yet paid, to wit, $44.50, together with $8.25, additional costs of filing the account, and the balance for distribution is therefore $6,979.

In the petition, two claims were noted: one for $1,-050.43, being the amount due the Bureau of Hospitals for the care of the ward at Byberry, for 253 2/7 weeks at $5 a week, less $216 paid on account; the other for $35 being the bill of Dr. John P. Mulrenan for professional services rendered the ward in 1930, prior to the appointment of a guardian. Another claim was presented at the audit by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for its share [171]*171of the maintainanee of the ward while he was in By-berry, which, less amounts paid on account, amounts to $44. While these claims are admitted to be correct, payment at this time is resisted by the guardian on the ground that this court has no jurisdiction to distribute the assets of the estate because the ward is now dead. The contention is that the entire balance for distribution should be awarded to the administrator for accounting in and distribution by the orphans’ court.

The Act of June 1, 1915, P. L. 661, provides for the support of feeble-minded persons confined in institutions of the Commonwealth. By its terms the court of common pleas has jurisdiction over awards for support, and by the decision in Harnish’s Estate, 268 Pa. 128, the orphans’ court has concurrent jurisdiction. See also Boles’ Estate, 316 Pa. 179. By amendment (Act of May 10, 1921, P. L. 438) to section 2, however, it seems to be clear that the court in which an accounting is filed has jurisdiction to make an award to the Commonwealth. The amendment requires that notice be given to the Commonwealth of the filing of an account by any fiduciary of the property or estate of a weak-minded person confined in a State institution, together with notice of the time and place of audit, and provides that upon failure to give such notice the account shall not be confirmed, and the fiduciary shall be personally liable for the amount due the Commonwealth. For the amendment to mean anything at all, it must mean that after such notice is given, and the claim of the Commonwealth presented, it is to be adjudicated and awarded by the court; otherwise for what purpose would notice of the time and place of audit be given, and why should the fiduciary be penalized by personal liability for the amount of the claim if he failed to give such notice? It is our conclusion that the act is a special one, intended to facilitate the collection of claims due the Commonwealth in these cases, and that under it the claim of the Commonwealth should be heard, adjudicated and awarded at this audit.

[172]*172Proper disposition of the claim of the county is not covered by the statute cited, except in section 7: In re Hoffmann, 258 Pa. 343, 346; which has no application to the present case, as there are sufficient assets to pay the claims of the county and Commonwealth in full. The latest appellate court case on the subject is Timmins’ Estate, 112 Pa. Superior Ct. 430. In that case the court of common pleas made an order upon the guardian of the estate of a weak-minded person, appointed by that court, to pay $19.50 a week to a nurse to care for the ward. This amount was paid in full to the date of death. The ward having died, the guardian filed his account and petition for distribution. The nurse claimed additional compensation from the guardian for extra services, and was therefore notified of the filing of the guardian’s account and of the time and place of the audit thereof. She did not prosecute the claim then, it being stated in the petition for distribution that the proper tribunal for. adjudicating her claim was the orphans’ court. When the administrator’s account was called for audit in the orphans’ court, the claim was presented and the auditing judge heard it, but declined to allow it. The nurse then petitioned the common pleas court to open the adjudication of the guardian’s account, which petition was denied on the ground that the orphans’ court had exclusive jurisdiction. The auditing judge in the orphans’ court thereafter wrote a supplemental adjudication, in which these facts are recited, and stated that the nurse’s claim should be heard somewhere, but the claim was again dismissed. The reasoning apparently was that if the services had been “necessaries” and had been supplied in an emergency, or had been supplied as a result of a contract with the guardian or an order of court, the estate would have been liable and the orphans’ court would have had jurisdiction, but since the services were not of that nature, relief would have to be sought in the court having jurisdiction of the guardian and not in the orphans’ court. The Superior Court did not follow the reasoning of the [173]*173lower court but affirmed squarely on the ground that the fact that the alleged claim had accrued during the period in which a guardian was in charge of the decedent’s estate was a valid reason for disallowing the claim in the orphans’ court. “The decree of distribution [of the common pleas court] was not appealed from, modified or reversed, and is conclusive upon her.” In view of the facts, the decision is that a claim accruing during the guardianship must be passed on by the court having jurisdiction of the guardian, for a decree distributing the estate in the hands of a guardian, which does not make provision for such claim, is conclusive upon the claimant.

The effect of that decision is to require the county to present its claim at the audit of the guardian’s account, as the claim accrued in part during the guardianship; in fact, if the payments on account were applied to amounts accruing prior to the guardianship, a substantial part of the claim accrued during the guardianship. Such being the case, we shall also adjudicate the claim of the county at this audit. The claim of Dr.

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Related

Boles's Estate
173 A. 664 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1934)
Estate of Margaret C. Timmins, Dec'd.
171 A. 281 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1933)
Wright's Appeal
8 Pa. 57 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1848)
Whiteside v. Whiteside
20 Pa. 473 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1853)
Yaple v. Titus
41 Pa. 195 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1862)
Appeal of Wheatland
17 A. 251 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1889)
Estate of Ebling
19 A. 847 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1890)
Buck's Estate
100 A. 866 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1917)
In re Hoffmann
101 A. 1052 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1917)
Harnish's Estate
110 A. 761 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
Estate of Tarr
10 Pa. Super. 554 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1899)
In re McCanna
77 Pa. Super. 1 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 Pa. D. & C. 169, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-delisio-pactcomplphilad-1935.