In re the Estate of Ellis

6 A.2d 602, 24 Del. Ch. 393, 1939 Del. Ch. LEXIS 19
CourtOrphan's Court of Delaware
DecidedMay 16, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 6 A.2d 602 (In re the Estate of Ellis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Orphan's Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Estate of Ellis, 6 A.2d 602, 24 Del. Ch. 393, 1939 Del. Ch. LEXIS 19 (Del. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Speakman, Judge,

delivering the opinion of the court:

The petitions in this proceeding were filed under the provisions of Section 3837 of the Revised Code of 1935. This section was amended by Chapter 191, Volume 41, Laws of Delaware, approved May 19,1937, by including in the classification of claims “Fourth: Taxes imposed by the State of Delaware.” By this amendment classes “Fourth to Ninth,” inclusive, as published in said section of the Code, appear as classes “Fifth to Tenth,” inclusive, in said amendment^ but otherwise the order of payment of claims was not changed by the amendment. The amendment was approved subsequent to the death of the decedent and therefore is not pertinent to the consideration of this proceeding, and for said reasons the section will be considered as it appears in the Code, that is, without the amendment.

At a hearing in this proceeding the attorney for Raymond W. Ellis, Jr., William W. Ellis and Olive D. Ellis, guardian of Charles H. Ellis, hereinafter referred to as the Ellis children, proposed to call witnesses in support of the allegations contained in their respective answers to the amended petition.

He contended that the Ellis children had the right, and if permitted they would show by the testimony of witnesses that with respect to their claims there existed between their father and them during his lifetime the relation of quasi guardian, or guardian de son tort, and wards by reason of the father without legal appointment or qualification having assumed the functions of guardian by exercising control over the funds which represent their claims, and as a result thereof the father at the time of his death was subject to all the responsibilities that attach to a legally constituted guardian, and he directed attention to Section 4432 of the Revis[404]*404ed Code of 1935, which provides that: “The Orphans’ Court may order that any property in the guardian’s possession, as such, at the close of the guardianship, shall be delivered to the ward, or his representatives, and enforce obedience to such order”; and claimed that by reason of the jurisdiction of this court over the property of minors it had jurisdiction in these proceedings to hear and determine whether the funds, representing the claims of the Ellis children, were held in trust for them by the decedent at the time of his death.

This offer was objected to by the attorneys for the respondents, Wilmington Trust Company, executor of Mary A. B. duPont Laird, deceased, and Henry B. duPont, on the ground that the jurisdiction of this court in this proceeding was confined to the giving of instructions to the executor with respect to preferences in the payment of creditors claims with respect of which the petitioner asked the aid of this court.

It was argued at great length on behalf of the Ellis children that because this court has jurisdiction to determine the order in which the claims of the several respondents should be paid, it could also in this proceeding exercise the express powers granted to it by said Section 4432 of the said Code, relative to the settlement of guardian accounts, as well as all general equity powers necessary or incident to a final and complete adjudication of the rights of the respective parties.

In his argument on the admissibility of evidence in support of the answers of the Ellis children to the amended petition, counsel for the Ellis children, after first stating their three proofs of claim, as filed with the executor, were identical, except as to the names of the claimants, the dates of the transactions mentioned therein, and the amounts thereof, set out in his brief what he termed the material parts of the proof of claim filed on behalf of Charles H. Ellis, as follows:

[405]*405“Personally appeared before me, the Subscriber, a Notary Public for the State and County aforesaid, Olive D. Ellis of Wilmington, Delaware, and made solemn oath and said that she is the Guardian duly appointed by the Orphans’ Court, in and for New Castle County of Charles H. Ellis, a minor and a son of herself and Raymond W. Ellis, deceased; that attached hereto is a note dated September 5, 1930, whereby the said Raymond W. Ellis promised to pay on demand to the said Charles H. Ellis the sum of Twenty-two thousand six hundred ninety-four dollars and nineteen cents ($22,694.19) with interest thereon at five percentum (5%) per annum; that the consideration for the said note was as follows:
“On September 5, 1930, the said Raymond W. Ellis having authority so to do, closed out an account owned by and in the name of the said Charles H. Ellis with the firm of Laird, Bissell & Meeds, Wilmington, Delaware, and received therefrom the sum of Twenty-two thousand six hundred ninety-four dollars and nineteen cents ($22,694.19) ; that the assets in the said account prior to and on the day of such withdrawal were the absolute property of the said Charles H. Ellis, the amounts of cash at any time paid into the said account having been owned by the said minor, and having been derived as follows, to wit:
“A savings account in the name of the said Charles H. Ellis, in Wilmington Trust Company, and a $500.00 legacy to him from the estate of Benjamin Ellis, his grandfather; that at the said date the said Raymond W. Ellis told this affianf and the said Charles H. Ellis of the said closing out and receipt of funds, and then and there informed them that he would secure the said amount to the said Charles H. Ellis in the form of his promissory note;”

and he stated that in the proof of claim as filed, the transactions between the deceased and his sons which gave rise to the claims are recited fully.

But even if this is so, reference to the statement of counsel for the Ellis children, taken in connection with the material parts of the proof of claim of Charles H. Ellis as above set out, disclosed that the claims of the Ellis children were represented by promissory notes and that the respective recitals of the transactions which gave rise to their claims were specifically stated to be the considerations for the notes.

The jurisdiction given to this court under said Section 3837 is a special statutory jurisdiction, limited in its nature and available only to an executor or administrator who is [406]*406unable to determine “between two or more creditors, the order of preference to be given to their respective demands.”

The section under consideration contains no language which would warrant the assumption that the Legislature intended that this court was to be given jurisdiction to inquire into and determine controversies of either a legal or equitable nature between an executor or administrator and those holding claims against a decedent’s estate.

In a proceeding under the section the only controversy that could arise is between the creditors touching the order of payment of their respective demands. As between a personal representative and creditors this court is not authorized to go outside of the petition for the purpose of determining the character of the demands of the respective creditors.

In this proceeding it conclusively appeared that the claims of the Ellis children are on promissory notes. They were filed as such and were so accepted by the executor, as is shown by both its original and amended petitions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
6 A.2d 602, 24 Del. Ch. 393, 1939 Del. Ch. LEXIS 19, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-estate-of-ellis-delorphct-1939.