Koteen v. Bickers

177 S.E. 904, 163 Va. 676, 1934 Va. LEXIS 208
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedNovember 15, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 177 S.E. 904 (Koteen v. Bickers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Koteen v. Bickers, 177 S.E. 904, 163 Va. 676, 1934 Va. LEXIS 208 (Va. 1934).

Opinion

Holt, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

Solomon Bear, a Jewish merchant, lived in the town of Shenandoah, Page county. He died testate in March, 1927, leaving to survive him as his legatees and distributees, two daughters, Frances Bear Bickers and Pearl Bear Harrison. These daughters are plaintiffs in the court below. This decedent in his will appointed his nephew, Meyer Koteen, [681]*681executor and trustee. Koteen, who lived in Norfolk, qualified under this will, proceeded to administer the estate, and made ex parte settlements, showing just what had been done. These settlements the bill in this case seeks to surcharge and falsify.

Defendants named are Meyer Koteen and the • United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company which had qualified as surety on his official bond. The surety company contends that it is not a proper party to this suit in equity, and under the provisions of Code, section 6102, prays to be dismissed. That motion was overruled and error is thus assigned:

“The circuit court erred in entering the decree against the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, because that company was not a proper party defendant to this suit, there was no jurisdiction in equity, and no right in the court to decree against the surety in this suit, that company being merely surety upon the bond of Meyer Koteen.”

We are cited to Allen v. Cunningham, 3 Leigh (30 Va.) 395, where it was said:

“This court by a series of decisions, had settled it as the law, that, before an action could be brought on the bond of an executor or administrator to charge his sureties, there must have been, 1, a suit against the representative to establish the demand, and 2, a suit to fix the devastavit. The legislature, thinking this intermediate suit unnecessary, passed a statute in 1814, dispensing with it: this statute, in the revision of 1819, forms the 63rd section of the statute of wills, 1 Rev. Code, ch. 104, page 390. It is seen, at a glance, that the sole object of that statute was to take away the necessity of the second action. The legislature never dreamed of changing, or even of explaining, the existing law, as to the person who might sue on the bond; * *

Before a creditor could bring an action upon such a bond he had to do two things. He had to bring an action to establish his demand and he had to bring another action to fix the devastavit. And it was in view of this somewhat [682]*682complicated situation that the legislature passed the act to which Judge Carr refers. It appears in the Code of 1819 as section 63 of chapter 104, vol. 1, page 390, and reads:

“When any person or persons shall have heretofore recovered, or shall hereafter recover any judgment against executors or administrators, in their representative character; and, upon execution issued upon such judgment, it shall be returned that there are not found, in the possession of the said executors or administrators, sufficient assets of the testator or intestate to pay and satisfy the whole, or any part of such judgment (costs excepted), such person or persons, recovering such judgment, his, her or their executors or administrators, may, upon such return of the execution as aforesaid, immediately commence and prosecute his, her or their action, against such executors or administrators, and their securities, or against either of them, or the executors or administrators' of either of them, upon the bond given by them, for the performance of the duties of such executors or administrators; in which said action the defendants may plead any plea or pleas, and in support thereof offer any evidence, which would be legally admissible in any action against executors or administrators suggesting a devastavit.”

The substance of this statute appears in our present Code, section 5388, as amended by Acts 1920, chapter 24, and in this form:

“When an execution on a judgment or decree against a personal representative is returned without being satisfied, there may be forthwith brought and prosecuted an action against the obligors in any bond given by such personal representative for the faithful discharge of his duties.”

This section deals with creditors and with actions against obligors on bonds, but as early as 1807 it was held that a judgment creditor whose execution was returned “no effects” might in equity proceed directly against obligors on an executorial bond.

In Clarke v. Webb, 2 Hen. & M. (12 Va.) 9, the court said:

[683]*683“The rule of law as laid down by the Supreme Court in the case of Braxton v. Winslow, 1 Wash. (1 Va.) 31, is well understood and admitted, that, at law, the security of an executor shall not be made liable for a devastavit committed by his principal, until it has been fixed upon him by a suit; but, although this be the case, at law, yet, surely, a creditor, after a judgment and the return of an execution, ‘no effects/ may either proceed against the executors for a devastavit, according to the rule laid down in that case, or may bring his bill in equity to have a discovery of the assets: and such is the present case. The court should therefore entertain the cause, and settle all disputes between the parties: but, to do this, all the parties (however remotely concerned in interest), against whom a decree can be rendered, must be before the court; and therefore, it was right, in this case, to make Judge Lyons a party. His demurrer must be overruled; and he must be directed to answer. Surely it is unnecessary to cite authorities to prove such plain principles/’

Judge Lyons contended, as counsel here contends, that a devastavit should have been previously established in some independent proceeding, but the court said not so, that equity had jurisdiction.

This equity practice, authoritatively stated, was not changed by the statute of 1814, carried, as we have seen, into the Code of 1819. That statute was designed to simplify and not to complicate proceedings already burdened with circumlocutions, and while it was always necessary that a creditor establish his debts it is plain that an heir and distributee named in a will does not have to go into court to prove that she is an heir, distributee and legatee. Here the plaintiffs are designated as daughters in the will. Their rights rest upon no unavailing execution.

The distinction between legatees and creditors clearly appears in Taliaferro’s Ex’rs v. Thornton, 6 Call (10 Va.) 21. That decision is thus stated in the syllabus:

“Although in the case of a creditor, the demand must be established against the executor before a suit can [684]*684be brought on the administration bond, yet in the ease of a legatee, a suit in equity may be brought upon it in the first instance, because the decree can be made so as to operate •against the executor in the first instance, and an account of the assets can be taken at once.”

In 3 Minor’s Inst. (2d Ed.) Part 1, pp. 574-75, is this statement:

“The remedy on the bond of a personal representative must, of course, be predicated upon some satisfactory evidence that he has violated the conditions of the bond, by wasting the assets committed to him, which is technically known as a devastavit.

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Bluebook (online)
177 S.E. 904, 163 Va. 676, 1934 Va. LEXIS 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/koteen-v-bickers-va-1934.