Palmer v. Pollock

4 N.W. 1113, 26 Minn. 433, 1880 Minn. LEXIS 190
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedMarch 31, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 4 N.W. 1113 (Palmer v. Pollock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Palmer v. Pollock, 4 N.W. 1113, 26 Minn. 433, 1880 Minn. LEXIS 190 (Mich. 1880).

Opinion

Berry, J.

On April 9, 1866, Parker Paine was appointed .by the probate court of Ramsey county administrator, with [435]*435the will annexed, de bonis non of the estate of one Craig, and gave the usual joint and several administrator’s bond, with McLean and Lindeke as sureties. Paine died on August 17, 1875, and administrators of his estate were appointed. On February 17, 1876, Palmer was appointed administrator, with the will annexed, de bonis non of the Craig estate. Paine was ordered to render a final account of his administration on April 2, 1875. The hearing upon this order was continued from time to time, and, by the consent of all parties interested, including the attorneys for Paine’s administrators, came on before the judge of probate for Bamsey county, on December 28,1876. .At that time the judge of probate found and allowed a balance of something over $2,500 as due'to the Craig estate. Palmer, as administrator, and Craig’s widow, who was a residuary legatee under Craig’s will, appealed from this determination to the district court, on questions of both law and fact. The appeal was tried, and on March 9, 1878, judgment rendered, determining, in substance, that Paine was indebted to the Craig estate for a balance upon his account as administrator, of $4,510.91. No part of this amount-has ever been paid into the probate court, nor any account given as to where it could be found, or how it has been invested. The district court found that prior to August 11, 1869, Paine had converted $2,975.86 of the same to his own private use and benefit. The remainder ($1,666.48) is interest allowed by the district court upon said sum of $2,975.86. Paine’s administrators, having been called upon, by an order of this probate court of March 25, 1878, to bring into court the amount found due as aforesaid to the Craig estate, answered that they had never had in their possession, or under their control, any money or assets of the Craig estate. Paine’s •estate is insolvent.

McLean, one of the sureties upon Paine’s bond, died testate, April 11,1871. On July 8, 1871, his will was admitted to probate, and letters testamentary issued to Paine and one Pollock, the present appellant. Ever since Paine’s death [436]*436Pollock has been sole executor. On the same clay commissioners to hear and adjust claims against McLean’s estate were appointed, (six months being allowed for the presentation of claims,) and they made and filed a report of their doings in the probate court. No claim on behalf of the Craig estate, on account of McLean’s suretyship, was presented to the commissioners. On March 28, 3878, Bell, as attorney of Palmer, administrator aforesaid, and of Sarah, Craig’s widow, presented to the probate court of Bamsey county a petition, setting forth in general the foregoing facts, and, in addition, alleging that Pollock, as executor, has a small amount of property belonging to the McLean estate not disposed of; that he is making large disbursements out of the property of said estate, under the will; and that, if no further disbursements are made, he has sufficient to satisfy the claim of the Craig estate upon the bond aforesaid. Upon these grounds the petition asks the probate court, upon a hearing, to audit and allow the amount found due the Craig estate, as aforesaid, as a claim against the McLean estate; to direct Pollock, the executor, to show cause why such claim should not be allowed, and why such other order as may be just and proper should not be made, etc.

Upon the filing of the petition, the probate court issued an order, reciting the leading facts of the petition and a default in the conditions of Paine’s administration bond, and requiring Pollock, as executor aforesaid, to show cause on the third day of April, 1878, why the amount found due the Craig estate, as aforesaid, should not be allowed as a claim against the McLean estate, and why such further and other order as might be proper upon such petition should not be made. This order was served upon Pollock, who appeared in answer thereto, and at his request the hearing was postponed to April 10th. On that day, after Pollock had filed his answer to the order to show cause, but before a hearing upon the petition, the judge of probate made an order directing that Paine’s administration bond be prosecuted in the name of the judge [437]*437of probate of Ramsey county, to the end that the money found due the Craig estate, as aforesaid, and interest and charges, be collected and applied in the same manner as it should have been applied by Paine. The order further authorized Palmer and Bell, as attorneys, to prosecute the bond.

The matters involved and issues raised by Bell’s petition, and Pollock’s answer to the same, were heard and tried by the probate court on April 10, 1878, and on May 16th, following, said court ordered and adjudged that the sum of $4,510.91, found to be due the Craig estate upon the final settlement of the final account of Paine as administrator of said estate, be allowed as a legal and valid claim against the estate of McLean, together with interest thereon from March 9, 1878; and further ordered and directed Pollock, executor as aforesaid, to pay the same, or such part thereof as the assets of said McLean estate which were in his hands March 29, 1878, would permit, to Palmer, as administrator as aforesaid. From this judgment of the probate court Pollock appealed to the district court, upon questions of both law and fact. Upon the trial of the appeal, the district court, in addition to the foregoing facts, with an exception hereafter noted, found that administration of the estate of McLean is not yet concluded, and that there is real and personal property belonging to said estate, not yet sold, disposed of, or distributed; that in October, 1874, Paine, being insolvent, assigned his property for the benefit of creditors; that on August 1, 1878, the assignee tendered to Palmer, administrator as aforesaid, on account of the aforesaid claim of the Craig estate against Paine, $435.10, being a pro-rata dividend thereon of ten per cent.; that the tender was refused, and that the assignee has ever since been, and now is, ready to pay the sum tendered to said Palmer, and that the estate of Paine is insolvent.

As conclusions of law, the district court found, first, that Paine’s conversion of said sum of $2,975.86 of moneys belonging to the Craig estate, and which had been received by [438]*438him as administrator'aforesaid, was a breach of the conditions of his administration bond; second, that the judgment for $4,510.91, rendered March 9,1878, upon the final adjustment and settlement of Paine’s administration account, is a valid and subsisting claim against' the McLean estate, and should be so allowed, with a deduction of $435.10, being the amount tendered to Palmer by Paine’s assignee; third, that judgment should be entered, adjudging the allowance of said sum of $4,510.91, with interest at 7 per cent, per annum from March 9, 1878, less $435.10, as a claim against the McLean estate; and that the same, or such part thereof as the assets which he has to use for that purpose will pay, be paid by said Pollock, executor as aforesaid, to said Palmer, administrator as aforesaid. Judgment was entered accordingly, and Pollock appeals to this court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 N.W. 1113, 26 Minn. 433, 1880 Minn. LEXIS 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palmer-v-pollock-minn-1880.