McDermid v. Bourhill

222 P. 295, 109 Or. 633, 1924 Ore. LEXIS 99
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 22, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 222 P. 295 (McDermid v. Bourhill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDermid v. Bourhill, 222 P. 295, 109 Or. 633, 1924 Ore. LEXIS 99 (Or. 1924).

Opinion

McBRIDE, C. J.

"We are clearly of the opinion that the executor was entitled, to possession of the real estate until the filing of the final account or some order of the County Court wholly or partially turning it over to him as trustee. The sections of the statute bearing upon this are as follows:

“§ 1288. [Or. L.] Administrator Chargeable With the Amount of Inventory. An executor or administrator is chargeable in his account with all the property of the estate which may come into his possession, at the value of the appraisement contained in the inventory, except as in this chapter otherwise provided.”
“§1292. [Or. L.] Amount of compensation Allowed Executor or Administrator. The compensation provided by law for an executor or administrator is a commission upon the whole estate accounted for by him, as follows: *

The difficulty in this case is solved by mentally segregating the dual relation of Bourhill as executor from his relation to the estate as trustee under the will. The two offices are practically distinct; as much so as though Bourhill had been appointed executor of the will and some other person as trustee. His executorial duties must first be performed before he can exercise his duties as a trustee. As remarked [638]*638by Mr. Justice Moore, in Roach ’s Estate, 50 Or. 179, 187 (92 Pac. 118):

“Where the same person has been appointed by a will to perform such dual duty in respect to the property of an estate, no service is demanded of him as testamentary trustee until he has fully performed his executorial obligation and secured an order of the probate court discharging him and liberating his bondsmen. Thus in Prindle v. Holcomb, 45 Conn. 111, it was held that the probate records should show that an executor’s account had been settled, before a testamentary trustee was entitled to take and hold the property of the estate for the purposes of the trust. In White v. Ditson, 140 Mass. 351 (4 N. E. 606, 54 Am. Rep. 473), in speaking of an executor, the court say: ‘While Healy fully completed the administration of the estate by the payment of all debts, legacies and expenses, he settled no final account as executor, and did not, by any open, notorious act, discharge himself as such in the probate court by assuming to transfer the residue of the property to himself as trustee, or by any other act indicating an intention thereafter to hold the same for the purposes of the trust. * * As actual payment cannot be made by one to himself, it has been held that, where the same person is executor and trustee, he must give bond in his character of trustee before he can exonerate himself from his liability as executor.’ ”

Of course, in the present case, Bourhill, neither as executor nor trustee, was required to give any bond.

We think clearly it was the right of Bourhill to take possession of the real estate and to account for it. So far as known, when the inventory was filed the estate owed very few debts and the personal property was apparently more than sufficient to cover such debts as were known at that time; but until six months had expired it could not be known, as a matter of law, what other claims might be presented, and it followed, naturally, as a matter of prudence [639]*639as well as a matter of law, that the executor should retain possession of the property. It was within his power all the time. He was the only one who was authorized to collect rents due upon leased property during the time of his executorship, and such control as the law gave him was possession, within the meaning of that word. “Possession means simply the owning or having a thing in one’s power; it may be actual, or it may be constructive.” Brown v. Volkening, 64 N. Y. 76, 80.

In Illinois Steel Co. v. Jeka, 123 Wis. 419, 429 (101 N. W. 399), the court, citing Booth v. Small, 25 Iowa, 177, defines possession of land as follows: “Possession of land is the holding of and exclusive exercise of dominion over it.” See, also, Oxford Dictionary, subject, Possession.

Not only was the possession constructive, but Bourhill actually exercised acts of possession by collecting the rents and accounting for them to the estate, taking charge of the grain raised upon the land, and such other acts of possession as McDermid himself might have exercised in his lifetime. In In re Higgins’ Estate, 15 Mont. 474, 486 (39 Pac. 506, 28 L. R. A. 116), Mr. Justice Hunt makes the following observations in a case where the person nominated in the will both as executor and trustee undertook to omit administration of the estate as executor, and attempted to function only as trustee:

“In passing upon the right of possession of realty conferred upon an executor, Field, C. J., in Weeks v. Hahn, 20 Cal. 621 (1862), held that under the Code of California, which contained at that time a provision similar to Section 127 of the Montana Probate Practice Act, that although the estate of an intestate descended to the heirs, subject to the payment of his debts, ‘yet this provision must be read in connection with the clauses of the other statutes to which we [640]*640have referred, which place the right of present possession in the administrator’; and that such right of possession remained in the executor until the estate was settled, or delivered over to the heirs, by order of the probate court. And the court conclude that, under the statutes of California, which are substantially like ours, ‘the right to the possession of the real property of an intestate remains exclusively with the administrator until the estate is settled, or distribution is directed by order of the probate court. ’
“The Supreme Court of Nevada in Gossage v. Crown Point M. Co., 14 Nev. 153 (1879), discussing the possession of realty by an administrator, as given by a statute similar to that of this state, held that such possession ‘is for the benefit of the creditors and the heirs,’ a,nd for the purposes of administration. * * ”
“ ‘ * And, again, before there could be any transmutation of property, as contended by defendants’ counsel, the executor must have settled his final account of administration in the court of probate, * *.’ [Citing from Hall v. Cushing, 9 Pick. 395.] * *
“ * * ‘It is not legally correct to say that a testator has the jus disponendi of his property; it is true only sub modo. The executor, as such,- is bound to administer the whole estate, as well that not given by the will as that embraced in it. (Hays v. Jackson, 6 Mass. 149.) The first claim on the estate is that of creditors; and it cannot be known until an inventory is returned and an account settled, whether the whole estate will not be necessary for the payment of debts. * * to enable the executors to perform the trust which the law devolves upon them, the whole property must, in the first instance, come to them, and be disposed of in an orderly course of administration, which the testator cannot control. * * ’ ” [Citing from Newcomb v. Williams, 50 Mass. 525].

In Jones v. Broadbent, 21 Idaho, 555 (123 Pac. 476), the court said:

[641]

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Bluebook (online)
222 P. 295, 109 Or. 633, 1924 Ore. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdermid-v-bourhill-or-1924.