Sledge & Norfleet Co. v. Dye

106 So. 519, 140 Miss. 779, 1926 Miss. LEXIS 482
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 4, 1926
DocketNo. 25268.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 106 So. 519 (Sledge & Norfleet Co. v. Dye) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sledge & Norfleet Co. v. Dye, 106 So. 519, 140 Miss. 779, 1926 Miss. LEXIS 482 (Mich. 1926).

Opinion

*784 Cook, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a decree sustaining a demurrer to a bill of complaint filed in the chancery court of Tate county.

The bill of complaint alleged that on the 16th day of February, 1922, the Coldwater Mercantile Company, Incorporated, executed and delivered to the complainant its promissory note for the sum of twenty-two thousand two hundred twenty-five dollars and seventy-seven cents, which was due and payable on November 15th, after date; that Mrs. R>. A. J ones, prior to her death, which occurred on May 17, 1922, was a stockholder and director of the said Coldwater Mercantile Company, Incorporated, and on account of her large interest in its affairs, she indorsed and delivered to complainant, as collateral security for the payment of the note of said corporation, two promissory notes, payable to her order and executed by the said Coldwater Mercantile Company, Incorporated, for the respective sums of four thousand three hundred eight dollars and forty-five cents and one thousand four *785 hundred ninety-one dollars and sixty-nine cents, both of said collateral notes being past due at the time of their delivery to the complainant. -The bill further alleged that the said Mrs. R. A. Jones died on the 17th day of May, 1922, and that the defendant T. M. Dye was duly appointed and qualified as administrator of her estate; that all the formalities of law were complied with to attach liability against Mrs. R. A. Jones and her estate as the indorser of the two said collateral notes; that the obligation of the said Coldwater Mercantile Company, Incorporated, for the payment of which the two notes were pledged, was not paid when the same became due and payable; and that by reason thereof, being the holder and owner of the two notes indorsed by the said Mrs. R. A. Jones, the complainant was entitled to a decree against her estate for the sum represented by the face of the said collateral notes, together with interest. The bill also alleged that these notes were not probated against the estate of Mrs. Jones, deceased, for the reason that the liability of Mrs. Jones, as represented by said collateral notes, was secondary and not. within the class required by law to be probated against the estate of a deceased person. Other averments of the bill of complaint were either abandoned or are not material to a decision of the question presented by this appeal.

The defendants demurred to the bill of complaint on the ground, among others, that the allegations of the bill of complaint show that the notes were not probated as a claim against the estate of the testatrix within the time required by law. This demurrer was sustained, and, from a decree dismissing the bill, this appeal was prosecuted.

There were several grounds of demurrer assigned in the court below, but in this court appellee seeks to justify the decree of the court below upon one ground only, and that is that, under the facts alleged in the bill of complaint, the claim of liability by virtue of her indorsement of these notes should have been filed and duly probated against the estate of the deceased within six months after *786 the first publication of notice to creditors to probate their claims, as provided by chapter 303, Laws of 1920, amending section 2107, Code of 1906 (section 1775, Hemingway’s Code).

The liability of Mrs. Jones, or her estate, by virtue of her indorsement of these notes, is only secondary, as section 192 of the Negotiable Instruments Law (section 2770, Hemingway’s Code), expressly provides that, “the person ‘primarily’ liable on an instrument is the' person who by the terms of the instrument is absolutely required to pay the same,” and “all other parties are ‘secondarily’ liable.” Taylor v. Ross, 129 Miss. 536, 92 So. 637; Gresham v. State Bank, 131 Miss. 20, 95 So. 65. Not only was the liability by virtue of this indorsement secondary, but it was contingent upon the failure of the Coldwater Mercantile Company to pay its indebtedness to the appellant when the same became due. Whether, the Coldwater Mercantile Company would pay or fail to pay the note to the appellant, for the payment of which the two notes indorsed by the testatrix were pledged, could only be ascertained after the same became due on November 15, 1922, which was long after the death of the testatrix.

The question for decision then is whether a liability of a decedent, which is secondary and contingent upon the happening of some future event, is required to be probated against the estate of the decedent. It has been repeatedly held by this court that a claim to be probated must be one which, if paid by the executor or administra-' tor, would prima facie entitle him to credit. Sumrall v. Sumrall, 24 Miss. 258; Gray v. Harris, 43 Miss. 421; Robinett v. Starling, 72 Miss. 652, 18 So. 421; Feld v. Borodofski, 87 Miss. 727, 40 So. 816.

In Jones v. Bank, 71 Miss. 1023, 16 So. 344, it was held that the liability of a cashier of a bank’ to reimburse the bank on the ground that he had not paid into the bank money received for deposit, and for which the customer was suing the bank, being contingent upon the re- *787 suit of the suit, was not such a claim as was required to be probated, registered, and allowed against his estate.

In the case of Harris v. Hutcheson, 65 Miss. 9, 3 So. 34, in discussing the distinction between claims and liabilities, Judge Campbell said:

‘£ There is a distinction between ‘ claims ’ and liabilities. ‘All claims’ must be registered, but not all liabilities. The claims required to be registered are those for the proof and registration of which provision is made by section 2027 of the Code; those which might be paid by the personal representative when proved and registered. If the decedent was liable in damages for a trespass or the like or to account as a partner, there could not be any registration of a claim against his estate. This shows the distinction between liabilities and claims, which latter are required to be registered, a distinction pointed out by Sharkey, C. J., in Gordon v. Gibbs, 3 [Smedes] S. & M. 473.”

In the case of Building & Loan Association v. Tartt, 81 Miss. 276, 32 So. 115, it was held that, although the contingent liability of a surety on a guardian’s bond is a debt, within' the meaning of our statute, charging the debts of a decedent upon his lands, it was not such a claim as is required to be probated against the estate as surety.

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Bluebook (online)
106 So. 519, 140 Miss. 779, 1926 Miss. LEXIS 482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sledge-norfleet-co-v-dye-miss-1926.