Porter v. Long

98 N.W. 990, 136 Mich. 150, 1904 Mich. LEXIS 670
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 23, 1904
DocketDocket No. 11
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 98 N.W. 990 (Porter v. Long) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Porter v. Long, 98 N.W. 990, 136 Mich. 150, 1904 Mich. LEXIS 670 (Mich. 1904).

Opinion

Hooker, J.

Arthur B. Long, a resident of Pennsylvania, was the owner of large tracts of pine and a sawmill [151]*151in Michigan. He had also a two-thirds interest in a co-partnership lumber business, in which his son George had the remaining one-third interest, the articles of copartnership being in writing. This relation existing, Arthur B. Long entered into a contract on July 9, 1881, with the firm, whereby he allowed the firm to lumber the lands upon its agreement to pay $4 a thousand stumpage for logs. It is claimed, and this court has once found, that this was a contract of' great liberality towards the son, George. See Porter v. Long, 124 Mich. 594 (83 N. W. 601). A. month after the execution of the contract, Arthur B. Long made his will. Lumbering operations began under this contract about May, 1882, and on December 5, 1882, a contract was made between the same parties for shingle stumpage.

George H. Long resided in Michigan, and was active in the management of the copartnership affairs. Arthur B. Long continued to reside in Pennsylvania, where he had large business interests. He died on June 23, 1884. George H. Long carried on the business, as surviving partner, until 1890, in much the same way as it had been conducted before his father’s death, and acted also as one of the executors of his father’s estate. He made annual reports to the orphans’ court in Pennsylvania of the alleged proceeds of the copartnership business, where such proceeds were distributed, and he also filed annual reports in the probate court for Kent county, Mich.

In February, 1895, George H. Long, as executor, mortg’aged the undivided twó-thirds of the mill property in Grand Rapids under an order made by the Kent county probate court. This mortgage was for $2,666.66, and ran to George H. Long’s wife. On the same day he and his said wife mortgaged the other one-third of the property to Mrs. Long’s brother for $1,333.34, and the same day it was assigned to Mrs. Long, who paid over to her husband $4,000 for the two mortgages. These mortgages were afterwards foreclosed. George H. Long’s brothers and sisters resisted the foreclosure proceedings, but without [152]*152avail. The case came to this court, and will be found reported in 118 Mich. 174 (76 N. W. 374), under the title of Long v. Landman.

The trial of that cause developed much feeling between George H. Long and his brothers and sisters, and its final disposition was followed by the filing of a bill for accounting; i. e., the bill in this cause. A decree was made settling some of the questions raised, and sending the case to a commissioner to state the account. An appeal was taken, and the case is reported in 134 Mich. 584 (83 N. W. 601). The case has since been to the commissioner, whose report to the circuit court was confirmed in most particulars, and we are asked by defendant George H. Long to review the decree.

The questions to be considered are stated in defendant’s brief as follows :

“1. Whether or not the defendant, as surviving partner, is chargeable with the sum of $7,078.70 for additional stumpage, and $8,848.37 interest thereon, or with any sum whatsoever for stumpage, beyond the woods scale of the stumpage, as appears on the books of A. B. Long & Son, and for which he had accounted before bill filed.
“ 3. Whether or not the defendant, as surviving partner, is chargeable with the sum of $34,348.87 for interest upon the sum of $19,300 as part of salary drawn out of the firm, or any sum whatsoever, beyond the sum of $16,775.50, paid into court by the defendant on the 37th day of October, 1900.
“ 3. Whether or not the defendant is chargeable with the sum of $108.05 for a duplicate credit for the taxes of 1884, and $114.40 interest thereon, or any sum whatsoever. '
“4. Whether or not the defendant is chargeable with the sum of $45.73 for the additional stumpage value of 114,396 feet of hemlock cut by the defendant on the land of A. B. Long in Millbrook township, but not under the contract of July 9, 1881, and interest on the same, $36.18, or with any surp whatsoever for hemlock stumpage.
“5. Whether or not the defendant is chargeable with a certain proportion of the rent of the house of A. B. Long situated in Millbrook township, and interest on the same, [153]*153and the proofs should be again opened to show the rental value, if any.
“ 6. Whether or not the estate of Arthur B. Long, deceased, was administered in the probate court for the county of Kent, in the State of Michigan, by the defendant.
“ 7. Whether or not the defendant was entitled to his statutory commissions upon the sum of $557,048.27, collected and accounted for by him as executor of the estate of A. B. Long, deceased, ih Michigan.
‘ ‘ 8. Whether or not the payment into court by the defendant of the sum of $16,775.50 was not a full payment of the defendant’s liabilities to the complainants.
“9. Whether or not the defendant is chargeable with the bill of Commissioner Brown of the sum of $900 for 45 days’ work at $20 per day.
“ 10. Whether or not the defendant is chargeable with all the costs of the accounting.”

Stumpage. A large amount of testimony appears in the record, and an extended discussion is made in the briefs, of the circumstances which, in the absence of satisfactory bookkeeping, are relied on to determine the amount of stumpage chargeable to the firm. We are of the opinion that the evidence fully justifies the conclusion reached by the circuit court that the estate was defrauded through' a short scale. It is claimed that the will contemplated an annual distribution of the estate’s share of the proceeds of this business, and George H. Long seems to have so construed it, for he claims to have distributed annually the available assets, even to the extent of reducing the same to $134, and making it necessary to mortgage the mill property to provide money to pay taxes and assessments. The sum due the estate for timber not accounted for was converted to other uses, — that is to say, it was treated as profits, and divided as such, George H. Long receiving his one-third as copartner; whereas it should have been paid to the executor, and divided, in which case he would have received but one-fifth of said one-third. It follows that the commissioner was right in finding that four-fifths of the sum so appropriated, with interest, was due to these [154]*154complainants from George H. Long. It is what rightfully belonged to them of the money given to him from this item in the distribution of estate funds. There is no reason why he should not pay interest upon the same from the various dates upon which he received it.

No controversy should arise over complainants’ claim to a share of the amount wrongfully taken for salary. It was settled by our former decree, and we are of the opinion that the court correctly held, that George H. Long was not entitled to compensation for his services in closing up the copartnership affairs. It was proper to compute interest upon the installments of .interest upon both the shortage and the amount taken as salary, the sums being fraudulently or wrongfully taken in both instances.

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Bluebook (online)
98 N.W. 990, 136 Mich. 150, 1904 Mich. LEXIS 670, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porter-v-long-mich-1904.