Sorensen v. Linford

139 P.2d 200, 121 Utah 113, 1951 Utah LEXIS 182
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 10, 1951
DocketNo. 7648
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 139 P.2d 200 (Sorensen v. Linford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sorensen v. Linford, 139 P.2d 200, 121 Utah 113, 1951 Utah LEXIS 182 (Utah 1951).

Opinion

CROCKETT, Justice.

James W. Linford died intestate October 20, 1942. His widow, Beatrice E. Linford, was appointed to administer the estate. The original inventory and appraisement showed assets totaling $1,072.40 as follows:

Equity in real estate (the business property on which an upholstery business was conducted) .$ 322.40
Ariel Larson notes, total $600, at 6% interest, $60 paid in 1940 . 600.00
1936 Chevrolet Sedan. . 200.00
Tools and equipment, Linford Upholstery Company. 50.00
$1,072.40

After the appraisers had determined the values as above set forth, the court, upon proper petition, decreed summary distribution of the estate to her as the surviving widow as permitted by statute because the estate had a total value of less than $1,500. She was not discharged as administra-trix, however, and in fact has never yet been discharged.

It should be well noted that the equity in the building, together with the tools and equipment of the upholstery business, formed a part of the estate distributed to the widow under summary distribution. She proceeded to operate the upholstry business for a period of three years in her capacity as owner. Durng that time, mainly through her own diligence in working and attending to the business but also partly because of the war-time scarcity of new furni[117]*117ture, the business was moderately successful. She paid off the balance owing on the building and certain other obligations against the estate and business and also made somewhat extensive repairs to the dilapidated building. In addition, the business showed a small net profit over that time. In 1945, she sold the business, including the building, tools and good will, for $6,000. And that is where the trouble arose. If the business had gone broke, nothing further would ever have been heard of the matter.

It was not until a considerable time after this sale, however (April, 1948), that Jean H. Linford and Phoebe Lin-ford Bingham, decedent’s son and daughter by a prior marriage, hereinafter called petitioners, filed a petition in their own behalf and recited it to be also; in behalf of James S. Linford, a minor son of a son of the decedent, requesting that the administratrix be required to show cause why the summary distribution of the estate to her should not be vacated and that she be compelled to file a correct inventory and. properly distribute the property. They alleged that the above inventory was false and fraudulent and failed to list certain property of the estate. The admin-istratrix demurred; the trial court sustained; and on appeal this court overruled the demurrer, Linford v. Linford, 116 Utah 21, 207 P. 2d 1033, 1035. We held that the decree was subject to attack, even though the time for appeal had run since the entry of the original decree; that the statute of limitations was not properly pleaded and did not apply; that if there was other property which the ad-ministratrix failed to include in her inventory, then she should be required to account for it.

The district court then had a trial of the issues at which the petitioners introduced evidence that the administratrix had failed to include in her original inventory the following items of personal property, which we number for convenience in further referring to them: (1) a 1935 Ford pick-up truck (registered to Linford Upholstery Company) ; [118]*118(2) certain household furniture; (3) a contract for the sale of realty to one Hanson; (4) $268.50 insurance money which petitioners contributed toward decedent’s burial expenses; (5) $132 additional interest on notes payable from Ariel Larson; and (6) the proceeds of the sale of the upholstery business. The court ruled that all of these items should be included in the estate together with item No. (7) net profit from the operation of the business over the three-year period amounting to $1,089.94. He refused a number of claimed deductions including $300 attorney’s fees and $7,200 which administratrix requested as salary for operation of the business for the three years. The Court did, however, allow her $640 as double her statutory fee. This, added to other approved expenses, reduced the estate to $5,381.73, of which the Court decreed three-ninths ($1,-793.91) to her and of the remaining six-ninths, two-ninths ($1,195.94) each to Jean, Phoebe and the grandchild James, and entered judgment against her for that amount in favor of each.

From that judgment the administratrix has appealed. She maintains that because the petitioners were properly noticed concerning the proceedings, that in the absence of fraud, her final account and the decree of summary distribution entered thereon is conclusive upon them, relying on Section 102-11-37, U. C. A. 1943. We are in accord with that contention. In the former opinion in this case, speaking about that statute, this court, by Mr. Justice Wolfe, said:

“In the case of In re Raleigh’s Estate, 48 Utah 128, 158 P. 705, we construed the above quoted statute to mean that the settlement of an account, whether it be a final or an intermediary account, is conclusive as to all items included therein, provided that the statutory requirement of notice has been complied with, and no heir or party is laboring under any legal disability, unless the settlement is set aside in a proceeding in equity for fraud or mistake prosecuted as are proceedings to set aside other judgments. * * *”

[119]*119The Raleigh ease referred to contains an excellent exposition by the late Mr. Justice Frick leading to the conclusion above quoted notwithstanding the apparent conflict between 102-11-37 which states that such accounts are conclusive and 102-14-23 which provides for correction of mistakes at any time before final discharge.

In the former Linford decision^ the order overruling the demurrer to the petition was based upon the assumption that the allegations of fraud were true. The evidence produced at the trial utterly fails to support these al-egations and the court made no such findings. Judge Jones not only made no such findings, but his oral statements in his discussions with counsel indicate that he believed the administratrix had proceeded in good faith. That is the only conclusion one could draw from the evidence in the record. The judge did make an express finding that the business had been both carried on and sold in good faith by the widow under the belief that she had a right to do so.

In the absence of fraud, the petitioners having had notice, are bound by the decree as to the property included in the inventory. However, when it later appears that there is additional property properly belonging to the estate it should be brought into the probate proceeding and properly accounted for. See Linford v. Linford, supra, and authorities cited therein.

We therefore direct our attention to the additional items of property hereinabove listed which the trial court ruled should now be included in the supplemental inventory: Item 1, the Ford pick-up truck appraised at $75; and Item 2, the furniture, appraised at $25, were erroneously omitted from the original inventory and are now properly included. Item 3 was a contract whereby decedent and his wife sold real estate to William Hanson. The title actually stood in administratrix’ name; the facts about it are a bit complicated and would not enlighten this

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Bluebook (online)
139 P.2d 200, 121 Utah 113, 1951 Utah LEXIS 182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sorensen-v-linford-utah-1951.