In re Estate of Bryan

490 A.2d 868, 340 Pa. Super. 455, 1985 Pa. Super. LEXIS 8891
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 22, 1985
DocketNo. 73
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 490 A.2d 868 (In re Estate of Bryan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Estate of Bryan, 490 A.2d 868, 340 Pa. Super. 455, 1985 Pa. Super. LEXIS 8891 (Pa. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

DEL SOLE, Judge:

The instant appeal is from a final decree of distribution of an estate. At issue is an auditor’s characterization, confirmed by the orphans’ court below, of certain transactions as distributions of the estate to an heir which had the effect of denying that heir any share of final distribution. Also at issue is the claim that the settlement of the estate was unreasonably delayed. For the following reasons, the de[458]*458cree of the orphans’ court is affirmed in part and reversed in part.

The procedural history of the instant case is as follows: On September 22, 1972, Corvan S. Bryan died intestate leaving a widow and one child, a daughter. On September 29, 1972, letters of administration were granted to the decedent’s widow, Appellee Marian Bryan. The Appellant, Marian Flynn Gulden, is the daughter of the decedent and Appellee. Following the grant of letters, there was little activity on the estate docket until the spring of 1979.

On April 12, 1979, Appellant petitioned the orphans’ court to force Appellee to file an accounting. On July 9,1979, the court ordered Appellee to file a first and final accounting within ten days. However, it was not until January 20, 1982, that Appellee filed the first and final accounting together with a proposed schedule of final distribution. Timely exceptions to the accounting were filed by Appellant and an auditor was appointed. After an evidentiary hearing, the auditor issued a report on April 13, 1983, to which Appellant renewed her exceptions. On December 1, 1983, the orphans’ court dismissed Appellant’s exceptions and entered a final decree confirming the auditor’s proposed schedule of final distribution. This timely appeal followed.

There are three transactions in dispute. First, on April 1, 1975, Appellant, Appellant’s former husband, James Flynn, and Appellee executed a demand note to the First National Bank & Trust Company of Waynesboro for $11,000. Appellee, as administratrix, agreed to secure the note with estate assets, specifically certain shares of stock in a water company. The second transaction occurred the next day, on April 2, 1975, when the same three persons executed a demand note for $15,000 to the Adams County National Bank which note was secured by Appellee’s personal savings account. The purpose for the above described loans was to provide Appellant and her former husband with cash for a down payment on the purchase of a bar. The remainder of the financing for the purchase of the bar was obtained through [459]*459a mortgage loan agreement with the First National Bank & Trust Company on which Appellee was not an obligor.

Shortly after the consummation of the above demand note transactions, the Adams County National Bank made a demand or payment which was made on June 19, 1975 from Appellee’s personal savings account in the amount of $15,-028.12. Nearly two years later, the First National Bank & Trust Company demanded payment on its note which was made on March 4, 1977 in the amount of $11,208.12. The payment of this note was made from a savings account in Appellee’s name which consisted entirely of a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the estate’s water company stock. The savings account had been substituted as security for the note when the water company stock was sold in July, 1976. Shortly after the payment on the $15,000 note, Appellant and her former husband found themselves in arrears on the bar mortgage which was foreclosed upon just before Thanksgiving, 1977.

The third transaction in dispute concerns a payment by Appellee of $2,500 from her personal funds to Appellant so that Appellant could purchase new clothes because Appellant’s daughter had allegedly taken all of Appellant’s clothes without her consent. This situation was related to marital and family difficulties between Appellant and her former husband which resulted in separation in June, 1978, and eventual divorce in 1979. Appellant was residing with her mother, the Appellee, at the time of the $2,500 payment.

When Appellee filed the first and final accounting and proposed schedule of distribution she listed the payment of the demand notes and the payment of $2,500 as distributions of the estate to Appellant. Those amounts were set off from the share of final distribution Appellant would have otherwise received. Appellee’s basic contention is that Appellant had agreed that any monies paid on the demand notes and the $2,500 payment would be “taken out” of Appellant’s share of final distribution of the estate. Conversely, Appellant contends that she at no time agreed that the amounts paid on the notes or the $2,500 would be [460]*460deducted from her share of final distribution. In addition, Appellant argues that any monies paid by Appellee were from her personal funds and as such any obligation of Appellant or her former husband for repayment would be to Appellee personally and not to the Appellee in her capacity as administratrix. Accordingly, Appellant contends that Appellee must institute separate legal proceedings to recover any monies owed and may not set off the personal obligations from Appellant’s estate share.

Before addressing the merits of the instant appeal, we note the following. First, the parties to the instant appeal have referred to the transactions in question alternatively as distributions or advancements. However, the two terms are not synonomous. An advancement is an irrevocable gift made by a parent, during his or her lifetime, to a child in anticipation of that child’s future share in the estate. In re: Morris’ Estate, 356 Pa. 497, 52 A.2d 172 (1947); In re: McLaughlin’s Estate, 345 Pa. 43, 46 A.2d 477 (1946). Since the transactions occurred long after the intestate’s death, any monies that were paid from the estate were not advancements, but rather distributions or disbursements. Second, it is well-settled that the findings of fact of an auditor, confirmed or approved by the orphans’ court will not be disturbed on appeal except in cases of clear error or if the findings are unsupported by the evidence. In re: Watt’s Estate, 409 Pa. 44, 185 A.2d 781 (1962). Finally, in order to claim credit for any disbursement of estate funds the fiduciary has the burden to prove such disbursements through evidence other than the fiduciary’s unsupported testimony which alone is generally insufficient. In re: Strickler’s Estate, 354 Pa. 276, 47 A.2d 134 (1946). However, a fiduciary may not set off individual claims against a distributee and the orphans’ court may not as a matter of law decree such a set off. In re: Wentz’s Estate, 225 Pa. 566, 74 A. 424 (1909).

The critical fact in the instant appeal is the source of both the funds paid on the demand notes and the $2,500 payment. A close review of the record reveals that the only [461]*461transaction directly linked to the payment of estate funds was the payment of $11,208.12 on the note to the First National Bank & Trust Company. In that transaction, the estate water company stock had originally been pledged as security and was later replaced by a savings account consisting solely of a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the stock. This was the account from which payment on the note was made.

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Related

In Re Widener University, Inc. v. Estate of Boettner
726 A.2d 1059 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1999)
Gulden v. Bryan
522 A.2d 40 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1987)

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Bluebook (online)
490 A.2d 868, 340 Pa. Super. 455, 1985 Pa. Super. LEXIS 8891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-bryan-pasuperct-1985.