Schwartz's Estate

35 Pa. D. & C. 386, 1939 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 107
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County
DecidedApril 14, 1939
Docketno. 164
StatusPublished

This text of 35 Pa. D. & C. 386 (Schwartz's Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schwartz's Estate, 35 Pa. D. & C. 386, 1939 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 107 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1939).

Opinion

Bolger, J.,

Charles Schwartz, the testator, died January 14, 1906, leaving to survive him his widow and four children, one of whom was petitioner, then a minor. The widow, Theresa Schwartz, who is the respondent here, and Fred H. Hahn duly qualified as executors upon probate of the will, following which she filed her election to take against it.

The will was informally written, but plainly expressed the intention of testator that his widow should receive the income of the estate during widowhood or life, and that upon her remarriage or death the estate should be divided in the proportions of one third to his daughters Emma and Maria, and two thirds to his sons William and Charles.

The widow’s election to take against the will altered the devolution of the estate, the widow receiving, inter [388]*388alia, a one-third interest for life in the real estate, and the remainder interests of the children accelerating into an immediate vested interest, and, as to two thirds, in possession. The adjudication of the executors’ account on March 6, 1907, awarded a two-ninths interest amounting to $1,655.90 in the personalty to petitioner to be paid to his guardian when appointed. This account contained no items of real estate and consequently the adjudication made no reference thereto.

Petitioner’s sister was subsequently appointed guardian of petitioner’s estate, but the executors failed to distribute to her anything except the sum of $302.09 on March 29, 1913, which sum was placed in a savings account and, with accrued interest thereon, was paid to the minor when he attained his majority in 1917.

Frederick H. Hahn, coexecutor with the widow, died September 12,1912.

It is important to note that the widow respondent failed to file a bond to protect the children’s interest after her death in the proceeds of the real estate and that no trustee was appointed to administer the proceeds upon its being sold. ^

No explanation ever was made to petitioner by his mother, or by his guardian, as to the extent of his interest in his father’s estate until 1931 or 1932, and no formal accounting thereof has ever been made to him.

During petitioner’s minority, his guardian, upon application to the court, was granted authority to join with his mother and the other children in the sale of two parcels of real estate. At or about the time of his attaining his majority, petitioner married, and thereafter, with his wife, executed 10 or 11 deeds with the other parties in interest conveying other parcels of real estate obtained by devolution from the testator. Checks constituting the proceeds of these sales were all endorsed by the grantors in the transactions to the widow respondent, who deposited the checks in various banks in accounts entitled [389]*389“Theresa Schwartz, Trustee”, “Theresa Schwartz, Executrix”, and on some occasions in her individual name. The last conveyance appears to have been made in the year 1924.

Petitioner asserts that he also, during his minority, turned over to respondent his earnings which were, he alleges, from $3 to $8 per week.

As against all these alleged charges, petitioner avers that he failed to receive the balance of the award in his favor in the adjudication of March 1907, and that he has received but approximately $5,000 from his mother, the respondent, from the proceeds of the sale of the real estate and other transactions, the last payment being in the year 1934.

In 1933, petitioner signed an acknowledgment to having received from respondent $4,700, “as an advance payment to me from the share that may be due to me under the will of my father . . .”.

On April 28,1934, petitioner filed in the Court of Common Pleas No. 2 of Philadelphia County his bill in equity against respondent, averring the existence of an inter vivos trust involving the funds in his mother’s hands and demanding an accounting therefor. Respondent moved to dismiss the bill on the ground that exclusive jurisdiction of the controversy lay in the orphans’ court and not in the common pleas. This motion was dismissed. The Supreme Court sustained the action of the lower court on November 26,1934 (Schwartz v. Schwartz, 316 Pa. 318). Thereafter, on March 31, 1936, following a hearing on bill, answer, proofs and exceptions, Gordon, P. J., dismissed the bill without prejudice to petitioner’s right to institute appropriate proceedings in this court. Judge Gordon found as a fact that the dispute between the parties did not arise out of an express trust inter vivos, and “by reason of the fact that the subject matter arises out of a decedent’s estate wherein an accounting is sought both as to personalty and to real estate, that the ques[390]*390tions involved could best be determined by the orphans’ court.” No appeal was taken from this decision.

On December 22, 1933, a citation was issued by this court, upon petitioner’s application, directed to Theresa Schwartz, to show cause why she should not pay petitioner the award of $1,655.90 made by the adjudication of March 6,1907, with interest thereon. Theresa Schwartz filed an answer averring payment and release, and suggesting the death of the coexecutor, Fred H. Hahn. Petitioner thereupon filed his replication joining issue. Thereupon, the court appointed Henry C. Remick, Esq., as master to take testimony and report his findings of fact and conclusions of law, and his recommendations as to a decree.

On June 22, 1936, upon application of petitioner, this court awarded a citation to Theresa Schwartz to show cause why she should not account for petitioner’s share in the real and personal estate of Charles Schwartz, deceased. Theresa Schwartz thereupon filed preliminary objections to the petition averring a lack of jurisdiction in this court. On December 3, 1936, Henry C. Remick, Esq., was appointed master to hear and receive testimony concerning the real estate of which Charles Schwartz, deceased, was seised at the time of his death and the proceeds therefrom, subject, nevertheless, to any objection made by Theresa Schwartz, surviving executrix.

The master, after many hearings and unsuccessful attempts to reconcile the controversy, filed his report recommending the granting of the petition upon the executrix to account, and the dismissal of the petition for an order to pay the amount of the award. Respondent has filed exceptions to the first of these recommendations, while petitioner has excepted to the second recommendation of the master. We shall deal with these conclusions in inverse order.

To support the recommendations that the petition for order to pay should be dismissed, the master refers to the [391]*391record of payments by respondent totaling $4,700 plus, acknowledged by petitioner as “an advance payment . . . . from the share that may be due me under the will of my father”. However, the record is devoid of evidence of specific voucher covering this item and we cannot regard the receipt above referred to, executed by petitioner, as conclusive of the payments made being in discharge of the award made in the adjudication of 1907. It also appears in the master’s discussion of the question of jurisdiction of this court, and the fact is amply supported by the testimony, that the proceeds of the sale of the real estate were commingled by the executrix with the personal estate and that it cannot be determined whether the amounts received by petitioner were on account of his share in the personalty or of the proceeds of the real estate.

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Bluebook (online)
35 Pa. D. & C. 386, 1939 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schwartzs-estate-paorphctphilad-1939.