McReavy v. Shaw

260 P. 351, 85 Cal. App. 518, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 486
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 21, 1927
DocketDocket No. 5836.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 260 P. 351 (McReavy v. Shaw) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McReavy v. Shaw, 260 P. 351, 85 Cal. App. 518, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 486 (Cal. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

COLLIER, J., pro tem.

On February 8, 1923, William Shaw duly executed his last will and testament, in which, among other things, it was provided:

“Twelfth: I hereby affix the compensation of my executor and trustee at the sum of $10.00 per month, for the first twelve months after qualifying as such, and $5.00 per month for each month thereafter. ’ ’

On February 16, 1925, he duly executed a codicil to his will changing the above provision to read as follows:

“Second: It is my further will and desire that the compensation of my executor and trustee fixed in the Twelfth paragraph of my said will be Thirty Dollars ($30.00) per month instead of Ten Dollars ($10) and Five Dollars ($5) per month respectively, as therein provided, and that said paragraph twelfth of my said will is hereby revoked and changed accordingly. ’ ’

*520 Shaw died March 17, 1925. On April 3, 1925, his will and testament was admitted to probate. Marie Shaw Mc-Reavy, the appellant here, was appointed executrix thereunder and qualified as such. On May 19, 1925, appellant filed a “Renunciation of Compensation Given Executrix by Will” worded as follows: “Comes now Marie Shaw Mc-Reavy, the duly appointed, qualified and acting Executrix of the above named estate and hereby renounces all compensation given her under the last will and testament of William Shaw, deceased, and hereby elects to take the compensation allowed her by law, under the provisions of Section 1618 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the State of California.”

At the time of his death Shaw was engaged in the business of building and selling houses, and at his decease he was the owner of a large number of houses and a large number of contracts for houses previously built. Some of these buildings were in process of construction and were completed by the executrix. Under the orders of the probate court she sold nine separate pieces of the real estate. She also adjusted and paid many outstanding claims for labor and material. In this and other matters she performed a great number of extraordinary and unusual services, for which she applied to and was allowed by the court the sum of $500. In her final account the appellant took credit for said $500 and also for $1,458.16, the statutory fees based upon the appraisal of the estate. Appellant also credited herself with $35, expended by her as commissions and paid to an agent for the sale of the household furniture and one automobile belonging to the estate. Upon the hearing of the final account respondent objected to said items of $500, $1,458.16 and $35. The objections were sustained and-such amounts disallowed. From the order disallowing said amounts the executrix appeals.

Respondent takes the position that “where an instrument by which a trust is created fixes the compensation of the trustees, they cannot claim a larger sum. They are entitled to the amount specified, and no more.” (Civ. Code, sec. 2274.)

That there is a great distinction between a “trustee” and an “executor,” even though these offices are held by one and the same person, there can be no question. “The per *521 formance of the trust created by the fifth article of the will is a duty devolving upon the persons named as executors and trustees in their capacity as trustees. (Italics ours.) It forms no part of their duty in their capacity as executors in the administration of the estate proper. . . . ‘The appointment to a trust under the will, not essential to the office of an executor, does not constitute the trustee an executor according to the tenor, for the offices of an executor and of a trustee are distinct, and may be vested in different persons, and when they are vested in the same person the functions of each are nevertheless to be performed by him in the respective capacity, the probate court having jurisdiction over him in the one, but not in the other capacity . . . ’ (1 Woerner on Administration, p. 504.) The authorities cited by Ihe author fully support the text.” (Estate of Phelps, 179 Cal. 703, 709 [178 Pac. 846].)

“The rule that the executors were succeeded by trustees whose duties were entirely different is well stated in Wheatley v. Badger, 7 Pa. St. 462, where it is said: ‘It would be as absurd for a trustee to attempt the duties of an executor as for an executor to attempt the duties of a trustee, and it is therefore the business of the court to separate the two offices, in a question like the present, reddendo singula singulis. As executor he was to pay the legacies; as trustee he was the devisee and depositary of the legal title for the accomplishment of confidential purposes, with which the office of an executor has no necessary connection. Had not the creation of the two offices in the same person been coupled also in the same clause, there would not have been a doubt of this severance in the contemplation of the testator; the will would have presented the union of distinct rights in the same person which are always treated as if they existed in different persons.’ ” (Mackay v. San Francisco, 128 Cal. 678, 684 [61 Pac. 382, 384].)

“Although the persons named in the will as its executors are the same as those to whom the testator directed the property to be distributed in trust for his children, yet the power of sale conferred upon the executors was not given by him to them as trustees, but terminated with their discharge as executors. The fact that the two offices are held successively by the same individuals does not give to them in the exercise of one office the power that had been con *522 ferred for the exercise of the other. Their rights and duties as executors were quite distinct from the duties imposed upon them as trustees, and their powers and duties as trustees did not begin until as executors they had ceased to have any control over the property ...” (Goad v. Montgomery, 119 Cal. 552, 561 [63 Am. St. Rep. 145, 51 Pac. 681, 684].)

And ordinarily the trustee’s duties begin when those of the executor end. (Goad v. Montgomery, supra.)

“In the absence of any direction in the will or any evidence in relation thereto, the duties of a trustee named in the will, even though he be the person named therein as executor, would not begin until after the duties of the executor have terminated (see Goad v. Montgomery, 119 Cal. 552 [63 Am. St. Rep. 145, 51 Pac. 681]; and until he commences to exercise his duties as trustee he is not entitled to compensation therefor.” (Italics ours.) (Bemmerly v. Woodard, 136 Cal. 326, 331 [68 Pac. 1017, 1019].)

Respondent relies on Estate of Whitney, 78 Cal. App. 638 [248 Pac. 754], but the point here involved was not the issue in that case, for on page 647, the court says: “The next objection relates to the order concerning the compensation of respondent trustees under the wül.” And on page 648 we read: “At the close of the administration of the estate . . . executors filed their final account and petition for distribution.

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Bluebook (online)
260 P. 351, 85 Cal. App. 518, 1927 Cal. App. LEXIS 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcreavy-v-shaw-calctapp-1927.