Littlefield v. Eaton

74 Me. 516, 1883 Me. LEXIS 62
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedMarch 10, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 74 Me. 516 (Littlefield v. Eaton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Littlefield v. Eaton, 74 Me. 516, 1883 Me. LEXIS 62 (Me. 1883).

Opinion

Virgin, J.

Assumpsit on two promissory notes, dated January 9, 1873, signed by the defendant personally, as principal, .and by his intestate, J. M. Eaton, as surety, payable on demand.

The surety, J. M. Eaton, died December 23, 1875, and the defendant was duly appointed and qualified, in January following, administrator on his estate, whereof he gave the proper notice within three months thereafter.

The writ bears date December 1, 1880. The declaration .contains two counts on each note — one on an alleged promise [519]*519of the administrator as such, and the other on the promise of the intestate in the usual form. In addition to the general issue, the defendant pleads both the general and special statutes of limitation.

The defendant paid from his own funds, both before and after the decease of the intestate, various sums upon each note annually down to 1879, which prevented the notes from being barred by the general statute, as against him, but not as against the intestate. E. S., c. 81, § 93; Faulkner v. Bailey, 123 Mass. 588.

Had he paid these sums from the funds of his intestate’s estate perhaps the result might have been different. Foster v. Starkey, 12 Cush. 324; Fisher v. Metcalf, 7 Allen, 210.

On the score of an alleged promise on the part of the defendant, as administrator, to pay the notes, the plaintiff seeks to recover judgment against the estate.

Assuming that the administrator may, by his promise, as such, prevent the general statute from barring the notes ; and assuming further (what is very doubtful, Perley v. Little, 3 Maine, 97; Oakes v. Mitchell, 15 Maine, 360), that such a promise is satisfactorily proved by the testimony in this case; still the plaintiff is confronted by the special statute bar that, except in specified cases not material to our present inquiry, no action against an administrator, on a claim against the estate, shall be maintained unless commenced within two years and six months after notice is given by him of his appointment. E. S-, c. 87, § 12, as amended by Stat. 1872, o. 85.

This provision, except as to the time mentioned, is as old as the state government. Its object and policy are to compel an early settlement of the estates of deceased persons by requiring creditors thereof to prosecute their claims with reasonable diligence, to the end, inter alia, that widows and orphans, dependent thereon for subsistence, may realize at as early a day as practicable, what belongs to them. Thurston v. Lowder, 47 Maine, 78.

In furtherance of its object, this statute has been considered to be a conclusive bar .to, and a practical extinguishment of claims [520]*520not prosecuted within the time limited; that an administrator cannot waive it, but is bound to plead it; that no promise on his part can revive a claim, thus barred, or prevent its barring an action not commenced within the appointed time. Scott v. Hancock, 13 Mass. 162; Brown v. Anderson, 13 Mass. 201; Thompson v. Brown, 16 Mass. 172; Emerson v. Thompson, 16 Mass. 429; Heard v. Meader, 1 Maine, 156; Manson v. Gardiner, 5 Maine, 108, 115; Parkman v. Osgood, 3 Maine, 16, 19; McLellan v. Lunt, 11 Maine, 150; Nowell v. Bragdon, 14 Maine, 324-5; Thurston v. Lowdry, 47 Maine, 72, 76; Waltham Bank v. Wright, 8 Allen, 122; Bacon v. Pomroy, 104 Mass. 585; Hodgdon v. White, 11 N. H. 208; Wood on Lim. 389, and cases in note 5; 3 Will. Ex. (6th Am. Ed.) 1904, note q, 2061, note u, where the authorities in the different states are collected.

In carrying out the logical consequences of this peremptory statute bar, it has been held that an action of debt, commenced after the lapse of the statutory limit, to revive a judgment recovered within it, is barred. McLellan v. Lunt, 11 Maine, 150; Pettengill v. Patterson, 39 Maine, 498; that a petition for a license to sell real estate on a claim barred, will not be granted, Nowell v. Nowell, 8 Maine, 220; Lamson v. Schutt, 4 Allen, 359; that if granted, it is void, since no lien of the creditor would remain on the real estate, of which the creditor could avail himself. Riker v. Morse, 104 Mass. 277; Tarbell v. Parker, 106 Mass. 347; that a levy under a judgment recovered on an action commenced after the limited period, is void as to all persons except the administrator who suffered it. Thayer v. Hollis, 3 Met. 369; Amoskeag Man’f’g Co. v. Barnes, 48 N. H. 25, 29; that a sum paid by the administrator to satisfy a judgment thus recovered would not be allowed in his official account. Hodgdon v. White, 11 N. H. 216; that no disability of the claimant, as by infancy, during the period prescribed, will prevent his claim, if due and payable, from being barred. Hall v. Bumstead, 20 Pick. 2, 8; and finally, it would seem, that in the absence of any statutory provision excusing the delay or new assets, no remedy exists for the claimant who has failed to avail [521]*521himself of his rights during the statute period, whatever may have been the reasons therefor. Packard v. Swallow, 29 Maine, 458.

The plaintiff’s notes are, therefore, barred, unless he has a remedy within the exception specified in the second clause of K. S., c. 87, § 13 as amended by St. 1872, c. 85.

The plaintiff claims that the items specified in schedule " A ” in the defendant’s second probate account, are " assets,” which have " come into the hands of the administrator after said term of two years,” within the meaning of § 13. Such assets are commonly denominated "new assets.” Assuming-, however, (what does not fully appear) that the several items of property therein specified and the money therefor, were received, in fact, by the administrator after the expiration of two years from the notice of his appointment, still our opinion is that they cannot be considered new assets. As a general rule, no property can be considered such, which has been in the hands and under the control of the administrator, or has been inventoried, or which is the product of such property, although it may have assumed or been converted into a new form. Thus, where an intestate’s interest in a partnership had been inventoried and sold by the administrator for notes, the notes received by him after the expiration of two years from the notice of his appointment, are not new assets. Sturtevant v. Sturtevant, 4 Allen, 122.

Nor is money accruing to the administrator, after the decease of the intestate, as royalties, or as proceeds of sales of inventoried patent rights. "It is the product of property included in-the inventory; and, in the same sense as are the increase of stocks and the increase of animals, it was embraced as a potentiality in the valuation of the patent for the invention.” Robinson v. Hodge, 117 Mass. 222.

Nor is property received by an administrator de bonis

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Bluebook (online)
74 Me. 516, 1883 Me. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/littlefield-v-eaton-me-1883.