Kellner v. Schmidt

170 N.E. 229, 338 Ill. 294
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 1930
DocketNo. 19781. Appellate Court reversed; circuit court affirmed.
StatusPublished

This text of 170 N.E. 229 (Kellner v. Schmidt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kellner v. Schmidt, 170 N.E. 229, 338 Ill. 294 (Ill. 1930).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Heard

delivered the opinion of the court:

George K. Schmidt, as surviving executor of the last will and testament of Kaspar G. Schmidt, deceased, filed his final account as such executor in the county court of Cook county. After a hearing thereon an order was entered, from which an appeal was taken to the circuit court of Cook county, where, after a hearing, a decree was entered, and an appeal was taken to the Appellate Court for the First District by Schmidt, as such executor, from portions of such decree. Upon hearing in the Appellate Court, as appears from the opinion filed in the cause and reported in Wahl v. Schmidt, 237 Ill. App. 372, the decree of the circuit court was reversed “as to the following items of the executor’s account, to-wit: (1) All items referring to advancements made to Barbara E. Kellner, to excess payments to her of income thereon and to over-payment to her of partial distribution and interest thereon; (2) the item charging the executor with $7500 as the ‘balance of $15,000 taken by George K. Schmidt from his father’s bank account on December 2, 1898,’ and the three interest items immediately following, viz., $16,821, $2253.49 and $902.89; and (3) all the items, aggregating $15,850.49, charged to the executor by virtue of the so-called blanket-appeal items of Mrs. Kellner. As to all such items the cause is also remanded, with directions to the circuit court to re-state the account as to all such matters in accordance with the views hereinabove expressed. In all other respects the decree of the circuit court with reference to the executor’s final account is affirmed.” Upon petition to this court for a writ of certiorari the writ was denied. After the cause was re-docketed in the circuit court a hearing was had in that court and a decree entered, from which an appeal was taken to the Appellate Court for the First District by George W. Kellner and Talitha H. Kellner, as executors of the last will and testament of Barbara E. Kellner, deceased. The Appellate Court reversed the decree of the circuit court and remanded the cause, with directions for a re-statement of the account in conformity with the views expressed in the opinion. The cause is now here by leave of this court upon certiorari.

Kaspar G. Schmidt died testate on December 10, 1898, leaving him surviving three married daughters and one son, viz., George K. Schmidt, Mrs. Barbara E. Kellner, (now deceased,) Mrs. Katherine Herbert and Mrs. Edna Wahl. By his last will and testament he appointed his son, George K. Schmidt, his son-in-law George W. Kellner, and his nephew Charles J. Schmidt, executors of his will and trustees of his estate, and devised and bequeathed to them all his property (subject to the payment of certain specified legacies and to a specific devise of certain real estate to such of his grandchildren as might be living in 1915) in trust, to be held by them for a period of fifteen years after his death, during which period the net income of his estate was to be paid to his four children, and at the end of that time to divide the residue of the estate among his children, “one-fourth to each, after the irregularities now existing by reason of advancements shall have been adjusted.”

The seventh clause of the testator’s will provides: “But I also direct that the shares of my daughters Barbara Elizabeth Kellner and Katherine Herbert shall be charged with ten shares of the capital stock of the K. G. Schmidt Brewing Company and $6000 in cash each, I having heretofore advanced such amounts to them or their respective husbands; and if hereafter I shall make any similar advancement to them or to either of my other two children, I direct that such' advancement shall in like manner be deducted from his or her distributive share of my estate, it being my wish to treat all my children alike in all respects. And in the distribution of my estate I direct that my shares of the capital stock of the K. G. Schmidt Brewing Company shall be divided in kind, and that those of my children to whom or to whose husband any shares of said stock shall have been advanced as aforesaid, shall be charged with the number of shares advanced the same as though they were received at the time of such distribution. And during the said period of fifteen years I direct that all of the net income of my estate shall be paid to my said children in the same proportion in which they will share in the final distribution of my estate, — that is, one-fourth to each after the irregularities now. existing by reason of advancements shall have been adjusted.”

In the original decree the circuit court ordered the executor’s account to be re-stated as to Mrs. Kellner, as follows:

“Recapitulation
Receipts............................$1,874,246.40
Less credits to executor.............. 295,776.09
-$1,378,470.31
Disbursements....................... 1,342,864.66
Balance in hands of surviving executor $225,605.65
“Table of distribution as to executor’s accounts
1. Balance in hands of surviving executor.......... $235,088.94
2. Advancements to Kate E. Herbert, specified in will 6,460.70
3. Excess payments of income thereon............. 4,851.24
4. Advancements to Barbara E. Kellner, specified
in the will................................. 6,460.70
5. Excess payments of income thereon............. 4,851.24
Total for purpose of distribution............ $258,229.53
“Table of distribution as to estate of Barbara S. Kellner
One-fourth amount for distribution..........$64,557.38
Add thereto the following:
Under-payment of partial distribution....... 6,703.12
Interest thereon at 5% from 10-15-15 to date 2,742.70
-$74,003.20
“Deductions
Advancements specified in will (cash $6000
and brewery stock $460.70)............... $6,460.70
Excess payment of income on amount of such advancements for the period from 12-10-99
to 12-10-14............................. 4,851.24
Additional share of Judge Gregg payment.... 75.00
Interest on above from 12-17-15 to date..... 30.04
- 11,416.98
Cash balance to be paid executors of the will
of Barbara E.

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Related

Wahl v. Schmidt
237 Ill. App. 372 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1925)

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Bluebook (online)
170 N.E. 229, 338 Ill. 294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kellner-v-schmidt-ill-1930.