McCoole v. Mackintosh

192 N.E. 600, 288 Mass. 115, 1934 Mass. LEXIS 1251
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedOctober 23, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 192 N.E. 600 (McCoole v. Mackintosh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCoole v. Mackintosh, 192 N.E. 600, 288 Mass. 115, 1934 Mass. LEXIS 1251 (Mass. 1934).

Opinion

Rugg, C.J.

This is a writ of scire facias. The defendant filed a motion to “dismiss or quash” which was denied and a demurrer which was overruled. The writ of scire facias was in the usual form and dated on January 15, 1932. It set out that the plaintiff in his capacity as judge of probate recovered judgment against the defendant in the sum of $10,000 on May 6, 1929, that the plaintiff has not had execution on that judgment for the use of the present claimant for the amount found due to him, and prayed for relief. The writ of scire facias is a judicial writ in its principal characteristics, is deemed to be the act of the court and its officers and, if it contains misrecitals, it is amendable as of course. M’Gee v. Barber, 14 Pick. 212, 215. Sigourney v. Stockwell, 4 Met. 518, 521. Commonwealth v. Stebbins, 4 Gray, 25, 26. The writ need not narrate the evidence by which it may be sustained, or negative possible defences. There was no error in the denial of the motion or the overruling of the demurrer. Every right of the defendant has been preserved by his exceptions.

[119]*119The pertinent facts shown on the record are these: The plaintiff seeks the issuance to himself for the use of the claimant, George P. Hoxie, as administrator, of an execution on a judgment entered in the Superior Court on May 6, 1929, in favor of the plaintiff for the penal sum of $10,000 against the present defendant. That judgment was entered in an action commenced in July, 1924, to recover for breach of a bond given by the defendant as trustee under the will of Sarah B. Ackerman for the faithful performance of his duties as such trustee. That judgment was entered pursuant to the decision of this court in McCoole v. Mackintosh, 267 Mass. 86. G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 205, §§ 23, 29. That action was prosecuted to judgment under the authority of a decree of the Probate Court by Eben Z. Parker as claimant, who was one of two heirs of one of the remaindermen under the Akerman trust. There was a finding that the total loss „to the remaindermen by the maladministration of the defendant was $4,450, and that the loss sustained by Parker alone was one twelfth of that sum. Execution issued on May 13, 1929, for the use of Parker as claimant in that action in a sum somewhat less than $1,000 including interest, and was returned satisfied in full on May 20, 1929. See G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 235, §§ 9, 10. The administrator of the estate of Carrie A. P. Hoxie, the other of those two heirs and the sister of Eben Z. Parker, prosecutes the present scire facias. It was not contended at the trial now under review that the defendant was not bound by these findings as to the fact and date of breach of his bond through maladministration in not terminating the trust. The findings and rulings made in the Superior Court in that case were in evidence in the trial of the present case. Those findings were to the effect that the defendant was appointed trustee under the will of Sarah B. Ackerman on March 5, 1902, in succession to an earlier trustee. The trust established by that testatrix was to continue during the lives of named beneficiaries, and was to terminate upon the death of the last survivor of them and then the residue was to be distributed by the trustee among designated remaindermen. The last survivor of the beneficiaries died [120]*120on May 2, 1905. Further findings were in these words: “I find there has been a breach by the defendant trustee of the second condition of the bond in that he did not manage and dispose of the real and personal estate held by him and faithfully discharge his trust in relation thereto, according to law and the will of the testatrix. ... I find that the defendant did not exercise good faith or sound discretion in his administration of the trust. A period of two years after the death of the last life beneficiary would have been ample time within which to terminate the trust and distribute the estate in accordance with the provisions of the will and delay in terminating the trust after March 2, 1907, was unreasonable.”

There were introduced in evidence certificate of the appointment in August, 1930, of George P. Hoxie as administrator of the estate of Carrie A. P. Hoxie, late of Raynham in this Commonwealth, and copy of decree of the Probate Court dated in January, 1932, authorizing George P. Hoxie as a beneficiary and interested in the estate of Sarah B. Ackerman to bring an action in the name of the plaintiff on the bond of the defendant as trustee. There was evidence that George P. Hoxie was the son of Carrie A. P. Hoxie. The trial judge found in favor of the plaintiff, ruled that he was entitled to execution for the use of Hoxie as administrator in a specified sum, made up of the loss sustained by the maladministration of the defendant with interest from March 2,1907, and directed that execution issue accordingly.

The defendant excepted to the denial of numerous requests for rulings and to the ruling that the plaintiff was entitled to recover and alleged other exceptions. At the hearing upon the allowance of the defendant’s bill of exceptions the plaintiff presented copy of “a corrected decree for leave to bring suit in this case” which in terms authorized George P. Hoxie as administrator of the estate of his intestate and beneficiary and interested in the estate of Sarah B. Ackerman to bring scire facias on the judgment on the bond of the defendant as trustee. That corrected decree was made after the trial and after the case had been submitted to the trial judge for decision. The trial judge did not pass upon this corrected [121]*121decree or admit it in evidence but stated that it ought to be included in the record.

The defendant contends that the action is barred by the statute of limitations. That contention is based on the first subsection of § 1 of G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 260, to the effect that actions on contracts under seal shall be commenced only within twenty years after the cause of action accrues. This proceeding is not an action on the bond but scire facias to collect the amount due to the claimant in equity and good conscience on the judgment entered on the bond on May 6, 1929. That judgment was rendered on the bond in favor of the plaintiff as obligee. No further action is being brought on the bond because that judgment was entered for its penal sum. Since that judgment was entered at the instance of a beneficiary of the trust under the Ackerman will standing on precisely the same footing as the present claimant, the statute of limitations ceased to be operative on the bond against this claimant. The action on the bond (which went to judgment on May 6, 1929) was begun before the expiration of twenty years from the date of its breach. The object of that action was to obtain a judgment to secure the rights and protect the interests of all those affected by the breach alleged. Bennett v. Woodman, 116 Mass. 518, 520. The present claimant has the benefit of the existing situation. The statute of limitations now operative is G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 260, § 20, to the effect that a judgment shall be presumed to be paid and satisfied at the expiration of twenty years after it is rendered. Manifestly that does not aid the defendant. His contention as to the statute of limitations cannot be sustained. The present claimant is prosecuting a scire facias under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
192 N.E. 600, 288 Mass. 115, 1934 Mass. LEXIS 1251, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccoole-v-mackintosh-mass-1934.