In Re Estate of Hale

2 N.W.2d 775, 231 Iowa 1018
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMarch 17, 1942
DocketNo. 45467.
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 2 N.W.2d 775 (In Re Estate of Hale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa 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 Hale, 2 N.W.2d 775, 231 Iowa 1018 (iowa 1942).

Opinion

Garfield, J.

Elizabeth C. Hale died testate on May 5,1938. The appraised value of her estate for inheritance tax purposes was $437,077. Except for specific bequests to the approximate amount of $60,000, the surviving husband, Henry O. Hale, ap-pellee herein, was the beneficiary under the will. Appellant Thatcher, a former banker who subsequently engaged in the general insurance business, was nominated by the will as executor. The will provided, however, that Henry, the husband, was to act as “an advisor” to the executor. The will named Prank Porter, of Ogden, Iowa, to act as attorney for the estate and fixed his compensation at $3,500. The will was admitted to probate on June 6, 1938, and Thatcher was appointed executor. He duly qualified and proceeded with the settlement of the estate.

On March 14, 1939, appellant Thatcher and appellee Hale had a conversation regarding the amount of the executor’s corn-pen,sation, in which a fee of $3,500 was agreed upon. On the following day, Attorney Porter prepared an application, verified by appellant, reciting “that your Executor has an agreement with Henry O. Hale * * * that for his services as Executor he shall receive the sum of $3,500.00,” and asking that half that amount be then allowed to him. Affixed to the application was the written consent of Hale that $1,750 be allowed Thatcher as half his fees. On March 25, 1939, an order was made on this application' authorizing the payment of $.1,750 at that time. *1020 This order recited that it appears “there is an agreement between the said Executor and Henry 0. Hale, the residuary legatee in said Estate, that said Executor shall receive the sum of $3,500.00 for services * * On June 1, 1939, a similar application was prepared by Porter and sworn to by Thatcher asking the allowance of the remaining $1,750 for the executor. Hale’s written consent was also appended to this application. On June 3, 1939, an order was made upon this application allowing the remaining $1,750 to Thatcher. This order also recited the $3,500 agreement between the executor and Hale. It is these two orders of March 25 and June 3, 1939, which appellant asked to have set aside in the application, now before us, filed in the probate court on September 7, 1939.

In this application appellant alleged that he was induced to agree to $3,500 as his fee by the representation of Hale that he would purchase his fire and other insurance from Thatcher’s insurance agency; that shortly after the $3,500 was paid Hale repudiated his previous representation, notified appellant to cancel certain insurance policies, and advised him that' Hale’s wife would thereafter write the insurance. The application asked not only to have the previous orders set aside but for the full “statutory allowance for his services,” plus $5,000 additional. The day after the application was filed Hale filed answer denying much of the application, pleading a contract that the compensation was to be $3,500, and an estoppel against appellant. The application was tried before Judge Henderson, commencing January 8, 1940. This appeal is from the denial of the application.

I. Appellant’s first assignment of error is that “the presiding judge erred in insisting that this case be submitted to him.” The complaint is without merit.

The application was first set down for hearing on September 22, 1939. The matter was postponed by agreement until the November 1939 term, presided over by Judge Henderson. Appellant’s counsel were unable to try the case at that time and an order was made on November 21, 1939, specially setting it for January 8,1940. This order recited that the case “is now specifically and finally assigned and set as the first cause to be tried at that time [the January 1940 term], and all parties are required *1021 to be prepared to proceed with it promptly and finally, and if any of the present counsel are not ready or able to proceed with trial at that time, the parties must have some other counsel prépared to do so, and no motion for further continuance, adjournment or postponement is to be entertained. ’ ’ No exception was taken to this order. Judge Henderson was also the presiding judge at the January 1940 term, pursuant to the regular published court schedule.

On January 3,1940, appellant filed a motion for continuance on the ground that the size of the estate and the amount of the executor’s work could not then be determined. Principal basis for this contention was the claim that the residuary legatee, Hale, had concealed over $400,000 of estate assets (which went to him under the will), to recover which the executor had on December 28, 1938, instituted two suits against Hale. (See In re Estate of Hale, 231 Iowa 3052, 2 N. W. 2d. 772. The motion for continuance made no objection to trial before Judge Henderson.

On the day set for trial appellant’s .counsel told the court, in substance, that, while they had filed a motion for continuance, they were ready for trial if the court thought it advisable or proper to proceed in view of the pendency of the two suits against Hale. Counsel also suggested, for the first time, that perhaps Judge Henderson would feel he should not hear the matter because of some connection the judge had had with another case in another county of the judicial district, in which the second wife of appellee had some interest (Hale having remarried). We have carefully read the record pertaining to these matters but deem it unnecessary to incorporate them in this opinion. We are very clear that they are wholly insufficient to show that Judge Henderson was disqualified from hearing this matter. Appellee and his counsel were present, insisting on trial. Judge Henderson attempted, without success, to get another judge to come from another county to preside. The judge finally asked counsel for appellant, quite insistently, to say frankly whether there was objection to his hearing the case, and if so, why. Counsel told Judge Henderson repeatedly at this time, and also previously, that they were not objecting to Mm if he was willing to try the case. “If you are willing to try the case,” counsel told the court, “I am perfectly content to try it. I am not objecting to *1022 you. If Your Honor feels we should proceed, we will call the first witness.” Thereupon the court overruled the motion for continuance and the trial proceeded.

It is clear that the above record presents no reversible error. Counsel, in effect, waived their motion for continuance and also any objection they might have to the trial judge. Appellant cannot complain that the court took counsel at their word and proceeded with the trial. Even where a judge is disqualified, a party may waive his right to object and may consent to trial. Stone v. Marion County, 78 Iowa 14, 42 N. W. 570; Incorporated Town of Dows v. DeLong, 149 Iowa 251, 128 N. W. 341; Annotation, 5 A.L.R. 1588.

Furthermore, even if appellant had not, in effect, waived both his motion for continuance and any objection to the trial judge, no abuse of discretion appears in overruling the motion and proceeding with the trial. It is, of course, elementary that a court has a wide discretion in ruling on a motion for continuance. As to the claim of disqualification, it is actual prejudice on the part of a judge, and not mere apprehension of it, which disqualifies. The disqualifying interest of a judge does not include every bias or partiality which he may entertain. 33 C. J. 1000, section 151.

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2 N.W.2d 775, 231 Iowa 1018, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-hale-iowa-1942.