O'Brien v. Waggoner

96 S.W.2d 170, 20 Tenn. App. 145, 1936 Tenn. App. LEXIS 11
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMarch 14, 1936
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 96 S.W.2d 170 (O'Brien v. Waggoner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Brien v. Waggoner, 96 S.W.2d 170, 20 Tenn. App. 145, 1936 Tenn. App. LEXIS 11 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

FAW, P. J.

Jake A. O’Brien, as administrator of the estate of Mrs. Perry Rebecca Ransom, deceased, brought this suit in the chancery court of Robertson county on October 1, 1932, against Clarence C. Waggoner, executor of the will of Mrs. Eva Graham, deceased, H. S. Fidelity & Guaranty Company, surety on the bond of said Waggoner as executor, and the American Telephone !& Telegraph Company. The latter two defendants are foreign corporations, but with agents and representatives in this state.

Complainant’s intestate, who is described in complainant’s bill as Mrs. Perry Rebecca Ransom, is sometimes known in the record as Mrs. Rebecca Douglas Ransom, and at other times as Mrs. Rebecca (Perry) Ransom, and again as Mrs. Perry Ransom. Unless otherwise indicated, references in this opinion to Mrs. Ransom will be intended as referring to complainant’s intestate.

Mrs. Eva Graham, deceased, the testatrix of defendant Wag-goner, was a daughter of Mrs. Ransom.

Mrs. Ransom died intestate in Robertson county, Term on July 19, 1921, and complainant, O’Brien, was appointed and qualified by and in the county court of Robertson county as the administrator *147 oí her estate on September 14, 1931 — more than ten years after her death. Mrs. Eva Graham died in Robertson county, Tenn., in the month of February, 1931, leaving a will, in and by which she nominated defendant Waggoner (a citizen and resident of Davidson county, Tenn.) as executor thereof, and said will was probated in Robertson county, Tenn., and defendant Waggoner qualified as executor thereof on March 2, 1931, with defendant U. S. Fidelity & Guaranty Company as the surety on his bond as such executor.

Mrs. Ransom and Mrs. Graham were both widows 'for a period of several years before the death of Mrs. Ransom, and during this period they lived together in the village of Greenbrier in Robertson county. Mrs. Ransom was “Postmaster” at Greenbrier, but she could neither read nor write, and Mrs. Graham transacted much of Mrs. Ransom’s business for her. Mrs. Ransom also received a pension as the widow of a federal soldier.

Mrs. Ransom had two sons, viz., Ellis Ransom and Edward Ransom, both of whom died prior to the death of their mother. Ellis Ransom had one child, a son, Perry, and Edward had one child, a daughter, Gladys, both of whom are living, and Gladys is now Mrs. Gladys McCallie.

Upon the death of each of Mrs. Ransom’s sons she collected the proceeds of some life insurance policies payable to her and invested a part of the sums thus collected in stock of the defendant American Telephone & Telegraph Company.

Mrs. Ransom purchased and owned stock of the defendant American Telephone ’& Telegraph Company, of the par value of $100' per share, for which she held certificates as follows: (1) One certificate bearing date of December 12, 1911, for 13 shares, issued to her in the name of Mrs. Rebecca Douglas Ransom; (2) one certificate bearing date of December 3, 1917, for five shares, issued to her in the name of Mrs. Perry Ransom; and (3) one certificate (date not shown in the record) for 9 shares, issued to her in the name of Mrs. Perry Ransom.

Defendant Waggoner was a personal friend of Mrs. Ransom and Mrs. Graham, from his childhood, as long as they lived, and, as Mrs. Ransom “had no place she thought safe enough” for these stock certificates, she requested defendant Waggoner to keep them for her, and he placed them in his lockbox in a bank at Nashville, where they remained until this suit was brought and, so far as the record •shows, until the present time.

It is conceded by defendant Waggoner that he held these stock certificates as a gratuitous bailee until his qualification as executor of the will of Mrs. Graham, but he insists that after the death of Mrs. Ransom he held them as such bailee for Mrs. Graham until her death, and that, since Mrs. Graham’s death, they are a part *148 of the assets of her estate in his possession for administration as executor.

On the other hand, plaintiff contends that the stock represented by said certificates belonged to his intestate at the time of her death and now constitutes assets of her estate. In his bill he alleged that defendant Waggoner, by his conduct in retaining possession of said stock certificates and in refusing to surrender and deliver same to complainant, and in collecting and receiving all dividends paid thereon, has unlawfully and wrongfully converted and appropriated the same as assets of the estate of Mrs. Eva Graham, and that defendant Waggoner, as executor of said estate, together with his said surety, is liable to complainant as administrator of the estate of Mrs. Ransom for the value of said stock, together with all dividends which have been paid thereon and collected by him as such executor, and that complainant is therefore entitled to recover a judgment against defendant .Waggoner, executor, etc., and the said surety on his bond, for the full value of all of said stock evidenced by said stock certificates, together with all dividends paid thereon and collected by him. Complainant prayed for judgment against the defendants in accordance with these allegations of the bill.

But in his answer to the bill defendant Waggoner, executor, etc., stated, among other things, that, “as he still has said stock in his possession, and can and will deliver same to whomsoever the Court should decree, he submits that complainant is not in any event entitled to a judgment or decree against him, or his official surety, no matter to whom the Court might decree that the stock certificates belong. ’ ’

After the aforesaid answer of defendant Waggoner was filed, the complainant, by leave of the court, amended his bill by adding thereto an alternative prayer that complainant “be awarded said property in specie, and that a judgment be rendered and pronounced in favor of complainant and against said defendants for damages for the unlawful and wrongful detention of said stock certificates, and for the amount of all dividends collected by said defendant. Clarence C. Waggoner, executor, since the death of the said Mrs. Eva Graham, deceased, with interest thereon from the date said dividends were collected by him, and all costs of this cause.”

The case was heard by the chancellor upon pleadings and proofs, according to the forms of a court of equity, and a decree was pronounced and entered which contains the chancellor’s findings of facts and law, and which findings are directly responsive to the material issues made by the pleadings; hence we see no occasion to extend this opinion by a statement of the contents of the pleadings, further than such references as may be made to same in *149 the disposition of appellant’s assignments of error hereinafter. The aforesaid final decree of the chancellor is as follows:

“This cause came on to be further and finally heard on this the 18th day of August, 1934, before the Honorable J. W. Stout, Chancellor, upon all of the pleadings and exhibits thereto, the testimony of witnesses and exhibits thereto and the orders of the Court heretofore made and entered in this cause, and the entire record in the cause; from all of which it appears to the Court that Mrs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
96 S.W.2d 170, 20 Tenn. App. 145, 1936 Tenn. App. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/obrien-v-waggoner-tennctapp-1936.