Succession of Milmo

47 La. Ann. 126
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJuly 1, 1895
DocketNo. 11,654
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 47 La. Ann. 126 (Succession of Milmo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Succession of Milmo, 47 La. Ann. 126 (La. 1895).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Nicholls, O. J.

Counsel of the executor in their brief direct our attention first to the opposition made to the items Nos. 131-198 and 252, amounts paid for pew rent in the Jeanerette Church. The District Judge rejected the opposition to item No. 131, inasmuch as the amount paid under the voucher was for pew rent contracted for by Milmo himself, but he sustained the opposition to the other two items; holding .that the rent was due by Baxter individually.

During the period for which rent is claimed the children, with the •exception of Baxter Milmo, were absent from the State. The executor was not authorized to incur the obligation. When incurred it was his individual debt.

Appellant complains of the action of the District Court in holding him responsible for an amount of money belonging to the succession, which was in his hands as execútor, which he deposited in his own name in the Plankington Bank in Milwaukee, and which bank suspended payment while the money was there on deposit. The deposit [128]*128was evidenced by a certificate in the name of John P. Baxter. A run having started upon the bank Baxter withdrew other moneys-standing to his credit in the bank, but this particular fund he was unable to withdraw, for the reason that he had transferred the certificate to parties who had become securities on the appeal bond' furnished by him as appellant in the partition suits (decided by us at Opelousas), 46 An. 1282, in the matter of the partnership of Milmo, Stokoe & Co., to secure them against the effect of their suretyship. The bank subsequently suspended payment. The executor seeks to justify his course by saying that a part of the fund was in the bank prior to Milmo’s death — -that there was no State bank in the parish of Iberia, nor was there any bank willing to pay interest on deposits, and that this particular bank was willing to pay three per cent.; that his own money was in the same bank, and that he was-seeking what he conceived to be the best interest of the succession. The reasohs assigned are insufficient. The executor made the-deposit in the Milwaukee bank in his own name, upon his own. responsibility and at his own risk. He should be charged and must be charged as if he had never parted with the possession. Baxter vs. Hewes, 45 An. 1065.

Appellant complains of the rejection by the court of a claim-advanced by him as tutor for a commission of ten per cent, on te^i thousand nine hundred and seventy-six dollars, alleged income of ^ the minors for the year 1891.

In the tutor’s account we find the following statement:

“Active Mass.

“For the reason that the estate of Bernard Milmo is still under administration and the minors having no separate property of their-own, there is, properly speaking, no entry to make as showing assets of the minors

“Their rights are involved in the property of the succession subject to administration and payment of debts, and all the property coming under control of the testamentary executor and tutor has-been accounted for in the account rendered heretofore of the gestión-of the testamentary executor.

“Daring the year 1891, in which B. Milmo died, the business of the firm of Milmo, Stokoe & Co. continued under the management of the surviving partners and the testamentary executor and tutor-[129]*129of the minors. The share of profits coming to the Milmo estate was fourteen thousand six hundred and thirty-five dollars. This was not turned over to the testamentary executor and tutor, but remained in the assets of the firm, except to the extent to which the executor has already charged himself, and the proportion of the above amount accruing since the death of Milmo to the end of said year was ten thousand nine hundred and seventy-six dollars.”

With this statement of record it is difficult to see upon what ground appellant can set up the claim he does for commission as tutor. It is expressly admitted that no portion of the ten thousand nine hundred and seventy-six dollars went into his hands as tutor, and in appellant’s testimony he declares these so-called “profits ” of 1891 were applied to the payment of the debts of the partnership of Milmo, Stokoe & Co. The executor calls them “profits” simply because, according to his statement, the business of the firm for the particular year 1891 — that in which Milmo died — showed an excess of income over outlays. It is not claimed nor pretended that at the end of the year 1891, with all the debts of the firm paid, there remained a balance in its favor. The affairs of the firm for the special year 1891 can not be separated from its general prior affairs in the ascertainment of “ profits.”

It is true that although the firm owed debts of its own, certain of its funds, with the consent of the other members of the firm, were permitted to be applied to the payment of some of the debts of the succession of Milmo (an advance to the succession), but these funds never went into the hands of Baxter as tutor. A portion of them went into his hands as executor, and were by him used for the purpose stated, while the greater part would seem to have been paid out by the firm to the creditors of the succession.

It is obvious that a person holding at one and the same time the position of testamentary executor of an estate, and tutor of the minor heirs therein, can not receive and disburse a fund in the capacity of executor and charge commissions upon the fund as being in his hands as tutor.

The rights and obligations of parties under the administration of the executor and those under the administration of the tutor can not thus be confounded. Succession of Mitchell, 33 An. 353.

The District Court in rejecting the claim for commissions as tutor [130]*130did not err. Succession of Pomponeau, 10 An. 79, 80; Heath vs. Lambeth, 3 An. 363; Succession of Hargrove, 9 An. 505.

In his account the executor claimed that he was entitled to a commission of two and one-half per cent, upon the total amount of the inventory of the succession. This inventory showed separate property of the succession to the amount of eight thousand nine hundred and eight dollars, and assets of the firm of Milmo, Stokoe & Co. (in which firm the deceased had an interest of ten-eighteenths) to the amount of one hundred and forty-seven thousand one hundred and forty-eight dollars.

The District Court refused to recognize the claim in so far as it was sought to be based on the interest of the succession of Milmo, in the partnership of Milmo, Stokoe & Co., as shown by the inventory, but allowed the executor a commission of two and one-half per cent, on sixteen thousand two hundred and twenty-two dollars as being an amount of money which actually went into his hands as executor.

In the reasons assigned by the District Judge for his action he stated that the partnership affairs had not been at the time of his judgment liquidated, and that he had reason to believe its outstanding liabilities were heavy — that if the executor would be entitled to commissions on the partnership property it would only be on the share which would ultimately pass into his hands free from debts. That matters were not in such a shape as to authorize or to justify him in fixing any specific amount of partnership values as that upon which commissions could be predicated.

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Related

Cox v. First Nat. Bank in Arcadia
197 So. 616 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1940)
Succession of Bertrand
54 So. 127 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1910)
Gouaux v. Beaullieu
49 So. 285 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 La. Ann. 126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/succession-of-milmo-la-1895.