Kowalsky v. Superior Court

109 P. 158, 13 Cal. App. 218, 1910 Cal. App. LEXIS 203
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 14, 1910
DocketCiv. No. 803.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 109 P. 158 (Kowalsky v. Superior Court) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kowalsky v. Superior Court, 109 P. 158, 13 Cal. App. 218, 1910 Cal. App. LEXIS 203 (Cal. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

HALL, J.

This is an original proceeding brought in this court to obtain a writ, prohibiting the superior court of Sarita Cruz county and the judge thereof from proceeding to hear or grant a motion made by the administrator of the estate of Margaret McLaughlin, deceased, for an order setting- aside the allowance and approval of a claim of plaintiff against said estate theretofore made by the judge of said court.

An alternative writ was issued, and the defendant made return thereto both by demurrer and answer.'

From the record before us it appears that the plaintiff, on the twenty-fifth day of June, 1907, presented to Frank McLaughlin, the then administrator of the estate of said Margaret McLaughlin, deceased, his claim for the sum of $1955.49 upon a promissory note, executed by said Frank McLaughlin and indorsed by said Margaret McLaughlin; that said claim was approved by said Frank McLaughlin as such administrator on said day, and thereafter on the same day the claim was approved and allowed by the judge of said court and duly filed. Thereafter said Frank McLaughlin having died without completing the administration of said estate, Samuel N. Rucker was appointed administrator of said estate, and thereafter, to wit, on the ninth day of December, 1909, said Rucker, as such administrator, filed and presented to the court a “full report and account of the administration of the estate of Margaret McLaughlin, deceased, from the commencement thereof to the first day of October, 1909”; that thereafter, on the twentieth day of December, 1909, after due notice given, the said account was duly “settled, ap *220 proved and allowed. ’ ’ This order has not been attacked by appeal or otherwise; at least the record before us discloses no such attack; neither has it been suggested in the oral argument or otherwise that an attack has as yet been made upon the order settling and approving said account.

On the second day of March, 1910, said Rucker, as such administrator, gave notice of a motion for an order of the court setting aside the allowance made by the judge of said court June 25, 1907, of plaintiff’s claim. It is the jurisdiction of the court to entertain and grant such motion that is attacked by this proceeding.

Defendant suggests that if the court should grant the motion plaintiff would have a plain, speedy and adequate remedy by appeal under section 963, subdivision 3, Code of Civil Procedure, but a reading of said section discloses that no appeal is given thereby from an order vacating the allowance of a claim against an estate. We have been cited to no other provision of the law giving plaintiff any remedy against an order setting aside the allowance of a claim against an estate, and we know of none.

Therefore if defendant is proceeding without jurisdiction in the matter in controversy, plaintiff is entitled to the writ as prayed for.

Plaintiff claims that in no event may the administrator by motion made more than six months after the allowance of a claim, procure the setting aside of such allowance; and that in the case at bar the allowance of plaintiff’s claim has been placed beyond attack by anyone by the'order settling and approving the administrator’s account, in which it is claimed this claim was exhibited as an allowed claim.

In reply to the first proposition defendants cite Barker’s Estate, 26 Mont. 279, [67 Pac. 942], and Cone v. Crum, 52 Tex. 348. Neither case is in point. In Barker’s Estate the attack was by the widow of the decedent against a claim that had been allowed in favor of the administrator, and the attack was made upon the hearing of his account.

Cone v. Crum decides that the administrator may maintain an action in equity, brought within a short time after the allowance of the claim, where the allowance was made by mistake and through inadvertence.

*221 However, it is not necessary for us to pass upon the question as to whether or not the administrator may under any circumstances take action to set aside the allowance of a claim against the estate, for we think that hy the allowance of the account presented by the administrator December 9, 1909, the claim of plaintiff: passed into the category of claims, “passed upon on the settlement of a former account” (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1636), and was thereby conclusively established against all persons interested in the estate, in the absence of any appeal from such order or attack thereon under section 473, Code of Civil Procedure.

In all material respects the facts of this case are like those in Estate of McDougald, 146 Cal. 191, [79 Pac. 878], where it was said, “When an account is presented for settlement after due notice, as in this case, any creditor or person interested may contest .the same, and may object to any item of charge or credit, or to any claim allowed and not passed upon on the settlement of any previous account, and may thereupon have his objection settled and determined. (Code Civ. Proc., secs. 1635, 1636.) The settlement of an account and the allowance thereof by the court is conclusive against all persons in any way interested in the estate. (Code Civ. Proc., see. 1637.) One whose claim has been rejected and who is prosecuting a suit upon it ag'ainst the estate is a person interested, who may make such a contest, and who is concluded by the settlement of a previous account. The first account of the administratrix set forth her claim as one of the allowed claims against the estate. This was sufficient to notify all persons interested that the validity of this claim would, be determined and established by the settlement of the account as rendered. No objection or contest was made; the account was settled, allowed and approved’ as rendered, and thereupon this claim, with the others mentioned in the list, passed into the class of claims passed upon in the settlement of a former account (sec. 1636), was conclusively established against all persons in any way interested, and its validity was not thereafter subject to attack upon the hearing of any subsequent account. A judgment or order of a court having jurisdiction is conclusive of all matters involved which might have been disputed at the hearing, although *222 no objection was in fact made. This rule applies to the settling of accounts the same as to any other proceeding.”

In the report containing the account presented by the administrator to the court December 9, 1909, three allowed claims are set forth. One of the three is the claim of plaintiff. As to this claim it is there said, ‘1 That after the said time for presentation of claims against said estate had fully expired, the claim of H. I.

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Bluebook (online)
109 P. 158, 13 Cal. App. 218, 1910 Cal. App. LEXIS 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kowalsky-v-superior-court-calctapp-1910.