Maryland Casualty Co. v. Sullivan

118 P.2d 137, 112 Mont. 496
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 22, 1941
DocketNo. 8,171
StatusPublished

This text of 118 P.2d 137 (Maryland Casualty Co. v. Sullivan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court 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. Sullivan, 118 P.2d 137, 112 Mont. 496 (Mo. 1941).

Opinion

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE JOHNSON

delivered the opinion of the court.

Margaret M. Sullivan died testate in 1924. Her will was admitted to probate in 1925, and letters testamentary issued to James C. Sullivan and Jane S. Higgins, her son and daughter who were jointly named therein as executor and executrix. The business of the estate was handled with almost a total disregard of the statutory requirements. Apparently because the property consisted largely of small cabins and other buildings of little rental value in an undesirable part of Butte, the business' of looking after it and collecting the rents had been left almost entirely to a realtor by testatrix in her lifetime and the co-executors continued that arrangement, leaving the business and the bookkeeping to him. He was also the local agent of the appellant Maryland Casualty Company, which was surety upon the co-executors’ bonds, and as its representative was the co-signer of all cheeks.

[499]*499Executor Sullivan died on February 4, 1927, and executrix Higgins on May 2, 1935. Kathryn Baird Sullivan, the widow of executor Sullivan, was later appointed executrix of his will and also administratrix de bonis non of the estate of Margaret M. Sullivan. The only account ever filed during the lifetime of either of the co-executors was filed by the executrix Higgins in October, 1929. The statutory notice was duly given of its presentation but no decree of settlement appears in the court files, the only record being a minute entry on November 9, 1929, settling the account and charging the co-executors with a $535.05 cash balance.

In 1938 the widower and administrator of the estate of executrix Higgins filed on her behalf a second account, apparently made up from the realtor’s books, which together with the 1929 account covered the entire administration by the co-executors. Other papers were filed which it is not necessary to mention here.

Mai Jean Sullivan, a granddaughter of testatrix Margaret M. Sullivan and a daughter of executor Sullivan, filed a motion in 1937 and an amended motion in 1938 to vacate and set aside the order of November 9, 1929, settling the first account, and to reopen the account. Her motion was based upon the grounds that the account was incorrect and that she was a minor when the settlement was made. (See. 10303, Kev. Codes.) The court made an order appointing a referee “for the purpose of determining the motion of Mai Jean Sullivan to vacate” the order of November 9, 1929, and generally for the purpose of examining the account and determining the balance due from the co-executors. The referee conducted an extensive hearing and in 1938 made his findings and report, in which he purported to grant the motion to set aside the 1929 order of settlement.

The referee also found that the co-executors’ receipts, as shown in the two accounts, were $11,724.07 but that there were other receipts of $330.50 not reported, making a total of $12,-054.57; that $1,349.37 of the $11,492.17 claimed expenditures should be disallowed, reducing them to $10,142.80, and leaving a balance of $1,911.77. He also found the estate entitled to [500]*500$250 for the value of a building lost through the co-executors’ neglect, $400 for personal property not accounted for, $1,626.07 for penalty and interest added because of the failure to pay taxes, and the further penalty against executrix Higgins of $467.60 for interest at six per cent, on $953.34 to her death from February 2, 1927, when the estate could have been closed, with a balance of the latter amount. The total balance found due the estate was $4,645.44, but a correct total of the above amounts seems to be $4,655.44. He found that each executor was chargeable with one-half of all items except the above item of $467.60, which should be charged entirely to executrix Higgins, and except the above item of $1,626.07, which should be charged $1,476.23 to executrix Higgins, and $149.23 to executor Sullivan (leaving $.61 not charged to either); thus of the $4,655.44 balance the referee found executor Sullivan chargeable with $1,430.11% and executrix Higgins with $3,224.71%, with the other $.61 not allocated; thus making the total amount chargeable against them $4,654.83. There were other findings which need not be 'outlined here.

On June 8, 1940, the district judge rendered an “order and decision” in which he ordered “that all of the findings of fact and all of the decisions of the referee herein, which are not inconsistent with these findings and decision, are hereby ratified, approved and confirmed.” He then proceeded to make additional findings on matters submitted to the referee but not included in the latter’s findings, charging the co-executors with $310.55 claimed but not actually paid as insurance premiums, $522.81 for premiums improperly paid for overinsurance of property, and $90 expended' because of their failure to close the estate when it could and should have been closed. The order settled the account as of February 4, Í927, the date of executor Sullivan’s death, in favor of the estate for $953.34, and charged one-half to each of them; the account for the balance of the period to the date of executrix Higgins’ death was settled in favor of the estate for $3,845.10. The entire balance was thus set at $4,798.44, of which $476.67 was charged to executor Sullivan and $4,321.77 to executrix Higgins. The order-[501]*501concluded: “All the motions, objections and exceptions of the respective parties herein, which are in conflict with this decision are hereby each and all of them overruled. ’ ’

Since the balance found by the referee, plus the three additional charges made by the court, would exceed the balance found by the court, it is apparent that some part of the referee’s findings are inconsistent with the findings and decision of the court, and that some of the “motions, objections and exceptions of the respective parties” must have been granted and the remainder considered “in conflict with this decision,” and therefore overruled by the district court. However, it is impossible to tell which items stand in either group, since the parties made no motion to seek a clarification of the order of June 8, 1940. Furthermore, they have not appealed from it and, therefore, the question of its correctness is not within this court’s jurisdiction. No express ruling was made in the order relative to Mai Jean Sullivan’s application to vacate the settlement order of November 9, 1929, but it is apparent that the referee’s finding in that respect was adopted, since otherwise the court could not have gone back of the 1929 accounting.

On August 13, 1940, the district judge filed an “amended order settling accounts” beginning as follows:

“The attention of the court having been called to omissions from and errors in its order heretofore made under date of June 8, 1940, in the matter of the estate of Margaret M. Sullivan, deceased, wherein and whereby the court assumed to settle accounts theretofore rendered and filed on behalf of James C. Sullivan, deceased, co-executor, and by and on behalf of Jane S.

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Related

State Ex Rel. Kruletz v. District Court
98 P.2d 883 (Montana Supreme Court, 1940)
State Ex Rel. Union Bank & Trust Co. v. District Court
91 P.2d 403 (Montana Supreme Court, 1939)
State Ex Rel. Vaughn v. District Court
111 P.2d 810 (Montana Supreme Court, 1941)

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Bluebook (online)
118 P.2d 137, 112 Mont. 496, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maryland-casualty-co-v-sullivan-mont-1941.