Shirey v. Harris

288 S.W.2d 315, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2130
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 2, 1956
Docket15693
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 288 S.W.2d 315 (Shirey v. Harris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shirey v. Harris, 288 S.W.2d 315, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2130 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

BOYD, Justice.

Appellees, G. A, (Pete) Harris, Jackie Harris, Tommy Gene Harris, Esther Harris Chisom, as guardian of the estate of David Whitt Harris, a minor, and Mildred Cooke, joined by her husband, Walter D. Cooke, filed a petition for writ of certiorari to cor *316 rect and restate the annual accounts and final account of appellant W. Shirey as administrator of the estate of G. N. Harris, deceased; to set aside the orders of the County Court approving the annual accounts in so far as they approved the expenses and commissions complained of; to set aside the order of the County Court approving the final account, closing the administration, and discharging the administrator and the surety on his bond; and to recover of appellants Shirey and United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, the surety on Shirey’s bond as administrator, the sum of $6,663.21, which it was alleged was retained by Shirey as expenses and commissions above the amount authorized by law.

Appellees G. A. (Pete) Harris, Jackie Harris, Tommy Gene Harris, and David Whitt Harris are the only children of G. N. Harris, and appellee Mildred Cooke was his surviving wife.

Trial was to the court, and judgment was rendered disallowing commissions received by the administrator in the amount of $5,-512.42, setting aside the order of the County Court approving the final account of the administrator in so far as said order approved the commissions disallowed by the trial court, and discharged the administrator and his surety, and judgment was rendered that appellees pay into the registry of the County Court the sum of $5,512.42 for the use and benefit of said estate.

Appellants’ first point is that the court erred in overruling their exception to ap-pellees’ petition based upon the contention that certiorari is unavailing in the case, and that appellees’ only remedy was by appeal from the orders of the County Court.

Article 932, R.C.S., is as follows: “Certiorari to the county court. Any person interested in the estate of a decedent or ward may have the proceedings of the county court therein revised and corrected at any time within two years after such proceedings were had, and not afterward. Persons non compos mentis, infants and femes covert shall have two years after the removal of their respective disabilities within which to apply for such revision and correction.”

The remedy by certiorari is distinctly statutory, and is not made dependent upon a showing why an appeal was not pursued. Friend v. Boren, 43 Tex.Civ.App. 33, 95 S.W. 711, writ refused; Zamora v. Garza, Tex.Civ.App., 117 S.W.2d 165; McDonald v. Edwards, 137 Tex. 423, 153 S.W.2d 567.

It has been held that certiorari is not available to set aside orders of the probate court approving claims against estates. Jones v. Wynne, 133 Tex. 436, 129 S.W.2d 279; De Cordova v. Rogers, 97 Tex. 60, 75 S.W. 16; McDonald v. Edwards, supra. But that is not the situation here. There were no claims filed by the administrator and approved by the County Court for the expenses and commissions under attack. The right of parties to invoke the jurisdiction of the District Court in cer-tiorari proceedings to review orders of the probate court has been liberally construed. Connell v. Chandler, 11 Tex. 249; Reynolds v. Prestidge, Tex.Civ.App., 228 S.W. 358; Williams v. Steele, 101 Tex. 382, 108 S.W. 155; Heaton v. Buhler, 60 Tex.Civ.App. 423, 127 S.W. 1078; Norris v. Duncan, 21 Tex. 594; Jirou v. Jirou, 104 Tex. 136, 135 S.W. 114; Linch v. Broad, 70 Tex. 92, 6 S.W. 751; 21 Tex.Jur., pp. 375-378, secs. 110, 111. We have considered all the authorities cited by appellants on this point, but do not believe they preclude the remedy of certiorari in this case. The point is overruled.

Appellants’ next point is that the court erred in overruling their exception to appellees’ petition based upon the proposition that so much of the action which involved the attempt to revise proceedings occurring more than two years before the application for writ of certiorari was filed, is barred by the terms of Article 932. The only authority cited by appellants in support of their position is Wade v. Scott, Tex. Civ.App., 145 S.W. 675. In that case no effort was made to revise and correct any annual or final account of an administrator or to set aside an order approving such.

*317 Some of the annual accounts under scrutiny in the case at bar were filed'and approved more than two years before the suit was filed. The order approving the administrator’s final account and closing the administration was entered less than eight months before the suit was filed.

It has been held that actions to revise or correct administrators’ accounts and orders approving them are not barred until two years after final settlement and discharge. Hefflefinger v. George, 14 Tex. 569; Hagerty’s Ex’rs v. Scott, 10 Tex. 525; Tindal v. McMillan, 33 Tex. 484; 14-B Tex. Jur., p. 110, sec. 1038. Moreover, appellee David Whitt Harris was a minor at the time the suit was filed, and he will not be barred until two years after the removal of his disabilities'. Article 932, R.C.S. Had the minor appellee alone prevailed in the suit, the accounts and the orders approving them would have been revised the same as if no appellee had been barred. Miers v. Betterton, 18 Tex.Civ.App. 430, 45 S.W. 430. We think the court did not err in overruling the exception.

Points three and four are briefed together, and we so consider them. They challenge the findings and holdings of the court as to the excessiveness of the commissions allowed the administrator and as to the alleged errors of the County Court in approving them.

The court found that Shirey showed in each annual account a sum of money paid to him as an advancement on the administrator’s fee, but that in none of the annual accounts is any method shown of calculating the proper amount of commissions; that Shirey sold real and personal property for $59,299.97, paid from the proceeds of the sales the sum of $50,549.97 on debts against said property, and retained $5,492.50 as commissions of five per cent; that Shirey was paid $253.64 as a commission of five per cent on funds transferred from various accounts belonging to the estate to other accounts; and the court concluded that these commissions were unauthorized and that the County Court erred in approving them.

By the provisions of Article 3689, administrators are entitled to receive five per cent on all sums they may actually receive in cash, and the same per cent on all sums they may pay out in cash.

Article 3690, R.C.S., Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 3690, is as follows:

“A commission shall not be allowed or received for receiving any cash which was on hand at the time of the death of the testator or intestate, nor a commission for receiving money realized from the sale of property to satisfy debts against the property and the paying out of the proceeds in satisfaction of the debt except as to the amount realized from the sale in excess of the debt, nor for paying out money to the heirs or legatees as such.

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288 S.W.2d 315, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shirey-v-harris-texapp-1956.