Simpson v. Goggin

5 S.W.2d 610, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 372
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 11, 1928
DocketNo. 7963.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 5 S.W.2d 610 (Simpson v. Goggin) 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
Simpson v. Goggin, 5 S.W.2d 610, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 372 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

FLY, C. J.

This appeal is predicated on a contest of the final account of Lilla H. Gog-gin, administratrix of the estate of Meme S. Simpson, deceased, which contest was inaugurated by appellant, Elise D. Simpson. In the account of the administratrix there was a charge of $2,400 for her commissions. In the county court of Maverick county, sitting in matters of probate, commissions were allowed in the sum of $460, and an appeal was perfected by the administratrix to the district court. In the court last named, judgment was rendered in favor of the adminis-tratrix for the commissions claimed by her.

The controversy as to the commissions arose out of the actions of the administratrix in connection with the construction of a clause of a will made by H. S. Reed of Lexington, Ky. The clause, after several bequests made by the testator, is as follows:

“All the residue of my estate, real and personal, I desire my executor to hold in trust for tlie benefit of my nieces and nephews hereinafter named, paying to each of them that survive me for fifteen years after my death their equal portion of the income therefrom in semiannual installments. At the end of said fifteen years all of my real and personal estate shall be sold by my executor and trustee and divided equally among my nephews and nieces and their children. My intention is that all of. my nephews and nieces and their children shall take an equal portion of my estate. The nephews and nieces who take under this will are: Mrs. Mattie Simpson Dunlap, Houston, Texas; Mrs. Lilla H. Goggin, El Paso, Texas; Mary Simpson. Eagle Pass, Texas; Mrs. Catherine Bowman Banks, Columbus, Georgia; Joseph J. Reed, Knoxville, Tennessee; S. P. Simpson, Eagle Pass, Texas; William R. Bowman, Fayette County, Kentucky; Bush' Bowman, Oklahoma; Andrew Bowman, Fayette County, Kentucky"; John B. Bowman, New Mexico; Robert Lee Bowman, Bellaire, Ohio; and Ellen Douglas Payne, Lexington, Kentucky.”

*611 A suit was instituted in the circuit court of Payette county, Ky., for a construction of the will. The testator, Henry S. Reed, died in Lexington, Ky., in 1911, leaving a will dated January 4, 1910, in which the Security Trust Company was made executor and trustee. He named as his legatees in Texas, in addition to his sister, Sirs. Mary R. Simpson, to whom he devised $1,000 to be paid annually during her life, his nephews and nieces mentioned in the clause hereinbefore copied from his will. The Texas nephew and nieces were: S. P. Simpson, of Eagle Pass, Mrs. Mattie Simpson Dunlap, of Houston, Mrs. Lilla H. Goggin, of El Paso, and Miss Mary Simpson, of Eagle Pass. The latter, who was also known as Meme S. Simpson, died on June 20, 1924, leaving a will bequeathing the bulk of' her estate to her mother, Mary Reed Simpson, and appointing her independent executrix of the will. Her property had been managed for her by her brother S. P. Simpson, who died a few months after her demise. He left a will bequeathing all his property to his wife, Elise D. Simpson, appellant herein, and his children. He was indebted to the estate of Meme S. Simpson in the sum of $7,000, which was afterwards agreed to and charged to his estate, with the understanding that it was to be deducted from his part of his sister’s estate.

Suit was instituted in the circuit court of Payette county, Ky., by the Security Trust Company of Lexington, as executor and trustee of the estate of Henry B. Reed, deceased, to secure a construction of that portion of his will which bequeathed all the residue of his estate to his nephews and nieces, of whom there were 12, which is as follows:

“At the end of said fifteen years all of my real and personal estate shall be sold by my executor and trustee and divided equally among my nephews and nieces and their children. , My intention is that all of my nephews and nieces and their children shall take an equal portion of my estate.”

The circuit court and the Court of Appeals, the court of last resort in Kentucky, held that the bequest was intended to be divided among the nephews and nieces, and not their children. The legatees were made parties to the suit in the Kentucky court, and Mrs. Goggin filed an answer as administratrix of the estate of Mary Simpson, deceased, in which she claimed that the estate was entitled to one-twelfth of the estate, and filed another answer in which she claimed for herself and three children, that they were each entitled to one twenty-eighth of the estate. Under one contention the estate of Meme S. Simpson would have received only one twenty-eighth of the Reed estate, and under the other one-twelfth of such estate. Mrs. Gog-gin appealed the case for herself and children to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky and filed no brief in that court for the estate of Meme S. Simpson, a part of which belonged to Elise D. Simpson, through her deceased husband, but filed briefs for herself and children and pressed their claim, which was antagonistic to the claim of the estate which Mrs. Goggin was under obligations in good faith to represent. The case was decided in favor of the estate of Meme S. Simpson and against Mrs. Goggin and her children. The Security Trust Company, executor and trustee, sent checks to Mrs. Goggin for the Meme S. Simpson estate share of the Reed estate amounting to $40,654.58, which was collected by her. Mrs. Goggin claimed $2,400, commissions on the amount collected by virtue of the cheek for the estate of Meme S. Simpson, deceased, and for other cash collected by her. The amount claimed on the Kentucky collection was $1,940.

It is provided in article 3689, Revised Statutes 1925, that executors and administrators shall be entitled to receive and may retain in their hands 5 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 in the course of administration. It is provided in article 3690 that commissions shall not be allowed or received for receiving any cash on hand at the time of the death of the testator or intestate, nor for paying out money to the heirs or legatees as such. The estate left by Henry S. Reed to his nephews and nieces was not in cash, but in real estate and personal property at the time of his death, and the will provided that it should be converted into cash and paid at the end of a certain period to the legatees. The interest of the legatees in the Reed estate was not in cash until the property was converted into cash, and the interest was uncertain until determined by the courts of Kentucky. There was no cash at the time of the death of the testator, and that is the only cash received on which no commissions are allowed by statute. It is contended that, because of the requirements of the will of Henry S. Reed that the real estate be converted into cash and the cash distributed to the devisees, the laws of Kentucky made the property personal property even before converted into money, but being personal property would not give it the character of cash on hand at the death of Meme S. Simpson, under the administration of whose estate in Texas the character of her estate is fixed. Neither do we think that the property, real and personal, was all converted into cash at the time of the death of Henry S. Reed by a Kentucky law that made it personal property, because it is self-evident that all personal property is not cash.

The money on which the commissions were charged by Mrs. Goggin was not collected by her in Kentucky, but in Texas, when she cashed a check sent to her by the Security Trust Company.

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Bluebook (online)
5 S.W.2d 610, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 372, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simpson-v-goggin-texapp-1928.