In re the Judicial Settlement of the Account of Hammer

16 Mills Surr. 245, 94 Misc. 36, 158 N.Y.S. 981
CourtNew York Surrogate's Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 16 Mills Surr. 245 (In re the Judicial Settlement of the Account of Hammer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Surrogate's Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Judicial Settlement of the Account of Hammer, 16 Mills Surr. 245, 94 Misc. 36, 158 N.Y.S. 981 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1916).

Opinion

Schulz, S.

—The public administrator of the county of Bronx has brought this proceeding for a judicial settlement of his account as administrator of the goods, etc., of the decedent. The secretary and chancellor of' the consulate general of Italy at Hew York filed objections to two items; one set forth in schedule C of the account and stated to be for “ miscellaneous expenses necessarily incurred in connection with- the administration of the estate,” and the other contained in schedule E of ttie account as to which the objection is that it includes “ a charge of $39.73 for administrator’s commissions ” and that “ this item is not a proper part, of said account and should be allowed only by decree, and that in any event it is not the correct amount allowable as administrator’s commissions.”

Hpon the oral argument I gained the impression that, so far as the objection to the item in schedule 0 was concerned, the [247]*247petitioner and respondent would agree before final submission to me. This, however, has not been done and in the memorandum submitted by the respondent the objection was pressed. It is fair to assume that if the objection had been urged upon the argument the administrator would have applied for leave to amend which, under the circumstances, I would have been inclined to grant.

The credit claimed is objectionable in its present form because it does not set forth the items which make up the total there stated, so as to enable the respondent to ascertain the necessity or reasonableness of any specific expenditure. (Matter of Jones, 1 Redf. 263.) This objection will therefore be sustained with leave, however, to the accounting party to file an amended account correcting the schedule in question within five days from the date hereof, and with leave to the respondent to file objections thereto if he so desires within eight days after notice to him of the- filing of such amended account. If an amended account is not filed within the time fixed, the accounting administrator will be surcharged with the amount thus objected to.

Schedule E embracing the item to which the second objection relates is alleged to contain a statement of all the other facts affecting the administration of the accountant and of his rights and those .of others interested therein. This schedule among other averments contains the following: The total amount of the estate which has come into my hands is the sum of $397.31, and the commissions to which I am entitled as administrator amount to $39.73,” to which the objection referred to is made. The summary statement of the account shows that the administrator has not credited himself with the commissions. The law is well settled that the allowance of commissions to an administrator is a matter to be determined by the surrogate and that an executor has neither the power nor the right to pay or reserve the same to himself until they have been ascertained and allowed [248]*248in the manner -provided by statute. (Code Civ. Pro., § 2753 ; Matter of Furniss, 86 App. Div. 96 ; Matter of Ziegler, 168 id. 735 ; Matter of Worthington, 141 N. Y. 9.) The accountant, however, has not charged the estate with the item in question and hence the objection'must be -overruled in so far as it is made against the alleged charge. The statement, however, does allege the right of the accountant as administrator to the amount of commissions there stated and, so far as the objection controverts that right, it should receive further consideration.

The contention of the respondent is that the amount of commissions to which the public administrator claims to be entitled and which he will presumably urge should be awarded to him by the decree is double the amount to which he is in fact entitled by law. It can readily be seen that a solution of this question is of importance, not so much because of the amount involved in this particular case, which is trivial, but by reason of the fact that a decision of the matter will in all likelihood affect-a 1 large number of estates which, from time to time, pass through the public administrator’s -office. As the question has now been raised in this proceeding and would at all event have to be determined shortly when the decree is made, I can see no reason why I should avoid expressing my views in the matter at this time.

The amount of commissions to which administrators in general are entitled is set forth in section 2753 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The commissions of the public administrator of Bronx county were fixed ‘by the so-called Bronx County Act (Laws of 1912, chap. 548, § 3) as amended by Laws of 1913, chapter 825. This section so far as material provides as fol- ' lows: He shall * * * receive and retain to himself the same allowance for his services and expenses incurred as are allowed to a county treasurer under section twenty-six hundred and sixty-seven- of the code of civil procedure.” An examina[249]*249tion of section 2667 of the Code of Civil Procedure as it was at the time of this enactment discloses the fact that this section does not fix the amount of the allowance to which the county treasurer is entitled. " Section 2668, however, does this and it was doubtless the intention of the Legislature to refer in the statute to section 2668 and not to section 2667. Authority for this assumption is found in the opinion in People ex rel. McDonnell v. Prendergast (167 App. Div. 140), where the court says: “ There was no provision in section 2667 of the Code of Civil Procedure referred to in the statute, with respect to an allowance to a county treasurer for services and expenses; but section 2668 as it then existed (now Code Civ. Pro., 2593, as amd. by Laws of 1914, chap. 443) contains such a provision and doubtless that is the section intended by the Legislature.” Section 2668 of the Code referred to, so far as material, provided as follows: “On receiving letters of administration the county treasurer shall be vested with all the powers and rights of other administrators, 'and subject to the same duties and obligations, except as herein otherwise provided. * * * He must be allowed- on the settlement of his accounts for his expenses as other administrators, and for his services double the commissions allowed them by law.”

By the recent revision of chapter XVIII of the Code of Civil Procedure (Laws of 1914, chap. 443) section 2668 of the Code of Civil Procedure was repealed, and there was enacted section 2593 which, so far as material to this controversy, provides: “ A county treasurer appointed administrator of an estate shall * * * be allowed the same fees for his services as are now allowed by law to administrators * * *.” The public administrator contends that under the provisions of the Bronx County Act he is entitled to double commissions, whereas the respondent claims that when section 2688 of the Code was repealed by the revision of 1914 the public administrator ceased to be entitled to double commissions and that by the enactment [250]*250of section 2593 he became entitled only to the commissions to which any other administrator is entitled.

When the Bronx County Act was passed it by reference adopted the provisions granting double commissions to the county treasurer and made them applicable to the public administrator of Bronx county.

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Bluebook (online)
16 Mills Surr. 245, 94 Misc. 36, 158 N.Y.S. 981, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-judicial-settlement-of-the-account-of-hammer-nysurct-1916.