Maryland Casualty Co. v. Owens

74 So. 2d 608, 261 Ala. 446, 1954 Ala. LEXIS 482
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedAugust 30, 1954
Docket8 Div. 735
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 74 So. 2d 608 (Maryland Casualty Co. v. Owens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maryland Casualty Co. v. Owens, 74 So. 2d 608, 261 Ala. 446, 1954 Ala. LEXIS 482 (Ala. 1954).

Opinion

MERRILL, Justice.

This is an appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court of Marshall County, in Equity, overruling a demurrer of the appellant to a bill to set aside a former decree of the court.

W. A. Childress died in Marshall County, Alabama, in 1931, leaving a last will and testament. Daniel Childress was appointed executor of the estate. The appellant Maryland Casualty Company became surety on his bond. An agreement was entered into in 1931 whereby certain portions of the [449]*449estate were conveyed between and among the parties in accordance with the will, but with the provision that each conveyance was to be subject to a payment of $35.00 per year by the respective grantees. The payments were to be made to the executor to be used for the support and maintenance of the widow so long as she lived.

In 1936 administration of the estate was removed to the circuit court upon a petition filed by the widow, Nettie A. Childress. In 1938 certain of the heirs, most of whom are now respondents filed their petition against Daniel Childress, individually and as executor, and against the now complainants, all of whom were then minors, charging that the executor had failed to make and render an accounting of the funds and property of the estate. From the filing of this petition in 1938 the proceedings of the administration wound its way up to the 10th day of October, 1949. On that day an agreement for a final settlement of the cause was entered into. A final consent decree was entered by the circuit court on the following day, October 11, 1949. The bill in the instant case seeks to set aside this consent decree.

The bill alleges that guardians ad litem were appointed on October 10, 1949, the day before the decree was rendered, to represent the present complainants, but that all of the complainants, except one, had long before arrived at full age. It further avers :

“ * * * None of these complainants were present at said procedure and none of them had any notice of the same; that the guardians ad litem theretofore appointed for them in this proceeding during their minority had long before this, either died or resigned and these complainants had not been represented by any guardian ad litem for quite a while as this cause progressed until some were appointed on the date of the execution of the said stipulation for a final consent decree. ‡ %
“* * * That, on said date of October 11, 1949, or the day before, Guardians ad Litem were appointed for all the complainants presumably to represent and protect their interests at- the signing of the written stipulation for a consent decree, as aforesaid; that none of these complainants signed said stipulation, or agreed to- the same, but that the said appointed guardian ad litems signed said stipulation presumably for them immediately after their said appointment as such on October 10th, 1949; that none of the complainants had any notice or knowledge of the said stipulation for a consent decree and none of them were present in court on the day the same was purportedly executed. That, at no time in the said proceedings leading up to the said decree of October 11, 1949, were any of your complainants represented in said cause, or served with any notice of any of the proceedings in said cause, save by and through guardian ad litem, as aforesaid. * * * ”

The present hill avers that certain property under the will of the deceased W. A. Childress was conveyed to his daughter, Lula B. Owens, the present complainant’s mother now deceased, and that before her death she and her husband in 1935 conveyed the property to J. B. Barnett by a mortgage. They allege upon information and belief that there was no consideration given for the mortgage and call upon Barnett to set forth what the consideration was. They allege that the mortgage was transferred by Barnett to Daniel Childress, as Executor, and that Childress moved upon the lands and cultivated them using the rents and profits for himself. Complainants declare that these rents and profits should have been applied to payment of the mortgage debt. The mortgage was further transferred by the consent decree of 1949 to respondents J. P. and Nellie Taylor with a provision that the proceeds from collection of the debt secured by the mortgage when collected would apply on payment of the amount due the Taylors under the consent decree.

The bill avers that the Taylors are about to foreclose the mortgage and sell the property. It further avers that the Taylors are claiming excessive and exorbitant amounts [450]*450as due upon the mortgage and that there is a bona fide dispute between complainants, and the Taylors.

The bill further states that complainants verily believe that they have a good defense to the matters and things adjudged against them by the decree of 1949 and that they have been prevented from making their defense because of matters set forth in the bill. They aver that the decree is void and of no effect and should be set aside because of lack of service of process upon them, lack of due notice and because of the fact of guardians ad litem purporting to act for them when many of the complainants were of full age and had been for some years prior to the rendition of the consent decree.

The prayer is for an injunction to restrain the Taylors from foreclosing the mortgage and for an accounting to determine the amount due so that they might be allowed to redeem the property. The bill seeks to restrain further proceedings under the consent decree -until a determination of the present decree. Such a restraining order was issued.

Demurrers were filed separately by other respondents, including Daniel Childress, the Executor, on whose bond appellant is surety. All the demurrers were overruled and appellant alone has appealed from the decree overruling its demurrers.

There are four assignments of error. The first is that the trial court erred in overruling appellant’s demurrer to the bill as a whole and secondly that the trial court erred in overruling the demurrer to' that aspect of the bill seeking to set aside the decree of October 11, 1949. The third assignment is the overruling of appellant’s demurrer to that aspect which seeks to bind appellant as surety on an agreement of November 30, 1931. The fourth assignment is the overruling of appellant’s demurrer taking the ground that appellant’s liability ceased upon the settlement in 1931. There are no “aspects” seeking specifically to bind appellant as surety upon any particular agreement. The surety is liable if at all for any breach by the executor of the conditions of his bond under Title 61, § 96. The liability of a surety continues on an administrator’s bond if the final decree is set aside. Fidelity & Deposit Co. of Maryland v. Hendrix, 215 Ala. 555, 112 So. 117.

The unusual situation here upon which the appellees rely as grounds for setting aside the consent decree of October 11, 1949, is that the decree is based upon an agreement to which they never consented and of which they had no notice or knowledge. The agreement was signed purportedly on their behalf by two persons appointed guardians ad litem on the same day the agreement was made and one day before the decree was rendered. Actually on this day all of the now complainants except two were of full age and had been for some time.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
74 So. 2d 608, 261 Ala. 446, 1954 Ala. LEXIS 482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maryland-casualty-co-v-owens-ala-1954.