In Re Will & Testament of Carson

289 N.W. 30, 227 Iowa 941
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 12, 1939
DocketNo. 44618.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 289 N.W. 30 (In Re Will & Testament of Carson) 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 Will & Testament of Carson, 289 N.W. 30, 227 Iowa 941 (iowa 1939).

Opinions

Stiger, J.

In April 1929 the will of George S. Carson, deceased, was admitted to probate in the district court of Iowa in and for Johnson county. The American Trust Company of Davenport, Iowa, and Celia Carson, wife of decedent, were nominated executors and trustees under the will. They were appointed executors under the will on April 13, 1929. The United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company is the surety on. the bond of the executors and trustees.

In December 1932 the American Trust Company was adjudged insolvent and a receiver was appointed by the district court of Iowa in and for Scott county. In April 1933 the Davenport Bank & Trust Company was appointed successor trustee and executor and this successor and Celia Carson continued to administer the estate as co-executors and trustees.

On February 20, 1933, the board of directors of the American Trust Company passed a resolution resigning from all of its fiduciary offices and positions. On November 7, 1934, an application was filed by the beneficiaries of the trust alleging that by arrangement between Celia Carson and the American Trust Company all of the assets and property of the estate, except the property in the hands of Celia Carson as ancillary administratrix in certain foreign states, passed to the possession of the American Trust Company' as trustee and were held by it until a receiver was appointed in December 1932; that the American Trust Company and its officers had ignored a prior order of the court to forthwith file its final report as executor and trustee and make a full accounting; that the American Trust Company had resigned as executor and trustee and that the said trust company was guilty of numerous breaches of trust as executor and trustee and prayed for an order declaring the office of the American Trust Company as executor and trustee under the will of George S. Carson vacant *944 and that tbe court enter such order with respect to an accounting by said trust company as it deemed appropriate, reserving jurisdiction of the trust company for the adjudication of any liability.

On November 30, 1934, pursuant to the application, an order was entered removing the American Trust Company as executor and trustee but the court retained jurisdiction over the company for the purpose of final hearing on its final report and accounting.

On November 30, 1934, the American Trust Company filed its final report as trustee and executor under the will of George S. Carson. The trustees and beneficiaries filed objections to the final report. On May 12, 1938, the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company filed a motion to require the objectors to state their objections more specifically.

On June 17, 1938, Judge Gaffney found that the objections were sufficiently definite and certain and if the motion was sustained it would require objectors to plead evidentiary matters, or require them to state evidence which might amount only to defensive matter for movants and overruled the motion. Appellant filed a petition to set aside this ruling and for a rehearing. The prior order was modified by requiring the objectors to set forth the name of the president of the American Trust Company and the Iowa Southern Utilities Company, and subject to this modification, the petition was overruled.

The United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company then filed a motion to strike the final report of the trustee on the ground that because a receiver had been appointed the officers of the American Trust Company did not have the right, power or authority to make the report and that said final report was void and a nullity; that the authority to make such a report, if one existed, alone rested in the receiver of the American Trust Company.

On September 16, 1938, this motion was overruled by Presiding Judge R. W. Hasner of the 10th Judicial district.

On July 21, 1938, the Fidelity Company filed a motion to strike the objections from the files and to require the objectors to make their objections more specific.

On September 16, 1938, Judge Hasner overruled the motion to strike the objections because it contained the same conten *945 tions that were urged in support of tbe motion of tbe Fidelity Company to strike tbe final report of tbe American Trust Company wbicb bad been overruled. Judge Hasner also overruled tbe motion to make tbe objections more specific because tbe same grounds were urged in tbe motion for more specific statement that bad been overruled by Judge Gaffney. Judge Hasner was clearly right in these rulings.

Tbe Fidelity Company appealed from tbe orders of Judge Gaffney overruling tbe motion for more specific statement and tbe petition for rehearing and also appealed from tbe orders of Judge Hasner overruling its motion to strike tbe objections from tbe files and for more specific statement and overruling its motion to strike tbe final report. Tbe several appeals are consolidated here by agreement of tbe parties.

I. We will first determine whether tbe overruling by Judge Hasner of appellant’s motion to strike tbe final report of tbe American Trust Company was error.

The motion to strike alleged tbe appointment of a receiver for tbe trust company on December 28, 1932, and stated that “by virtue of tbe appointment of said receiver for the American Trust Company no right or authority existed in tbe so-called American Trust Company, or any person who was an officer of such corporation, to do or perform any act for and on behalf of said corporation after tbe 28th day of December, 1932; that under tbe decision of the Supreme Court of Iowa In re Strasser’s Estate, [220 Iowa 194], 262 N. W. 137 [102 A. L. R. 117], said officers pretending to act for tbe American Trust Company and for and on its behalf bad no right, power or authority to make such report and that said report is void and is a nullity; that the right and authority to make such report, if one existed, alone rested in tbe receiver of tbe American Trust Company.”

In August 1933 the Davenport Bank & Trust Company, successor executor and trustee, and Celia Carson filed an application in tbe receivership of tbe American Trust Company, a banking corporation, pending in the district court of Iowa in and for Scott county, for an order requiring D. W. Bates, superintendent of banking and statutory receiver of said corporation, to deliver to said executors and trustees all of tbe trust property belonging to tbe Carson trust. On August 31, *946 1933, an order was entered by tbe Scott county district court granting said application and pursuant to tbis order tbe receiver delivered all of tbe Carson trust property in bis possession to said executors and trustees.

Appellant relies on In re Estate of Strasser, 220 Iowa 194, 262 N. W. 137, 102 A. L. R. 117, and In re Estate of Carson, 221 Iowa 367, 265 N. W. 648.

In tbe Strasser case, tbe American Trust Company of Davenport, Iowa, was trustee under tbe will of Pauline Strasser. A receiver was appointed for tbe trustee and tbe Davenport Bank & Trust Company was appointed successor trustee.

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Bluebook (online)
289 N.W. 30, 227 Iowa 941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-will-testament-of-carson-iowa-1939.