Thorn v. Garner

49 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 507
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1886
StatusPublished

This text of 49 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 507 (Thorn v. Garner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thorn v. Garner, 49 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 507 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1886).

Opinion

Churchill, J".:

Thomas Garner, Sr., died October 16, 1867, leaving a large real and personal estate, considerably exceeding $5,000,000 in value, lie left two sons, Thomas Garner, J r., and William T. Garner, and three daughters. He left a will dated April 12, 1866, by which he made provision for each of his children. That for his son, Thomas Garner, Jr., was as follows :

11 Sixth. I give and bequeath to my son Thomas, the sum of $1,000,000, to be paid him within eighteen months after my decease.”

He made his son, William T. Garner, his residuary legatee, thereby giving him a share of the estate considerably exceeding that of any other child. He appointed his two sons, one of his sons-in-law, and the plaintiff in this action, executors. William T. Garner alone qualified and acted as executor of his father’s will. The personal estate proved sufficient to pay all the legacies of the will and debts of the testator, and to leave a considerable sum for the residuary legatee.

[509]*509Thomas Garner, Jr., came of age October 9, 1859; he was married June 6, 1860; his only child, Frances M. Iselin, one of the defendants, was born July 3, 1861, and he died March 23, 1869, leaving a widow, the defendant, Harriet H. Garner, and their child above named. He left a will dated November 12,1867, appointing as executors and trustees of his estate his brother, William T. Garner, with the plaintiff, both of whom, soon after his death, qualified and entered upon their duties as such.

In the early part of 1871, William T. Garner, with the plaintiff, applied to the Surrogate of New York for a final settlement of their accounts as such executors, of which the defendants, Harriet H. Garner and her daughter, then an infant, had notice. No appearance for the widow or her daughter appears to have been made, except that a special guardian was appointed for the infant. April 4, 1871, a decree was made by the Surrogate, adjudging the balance in the hands of the executors to be $840,861.37, and directing them, after paying commissions and the expenses of the accounting, to hold and invest the same as directed by the will, which was done by them.

The account, as presented and allowed, credited the legacy of $1,000,000 under the will of Thomas Garner, Sr., as having been paid April 15,1869, or at the end of eighteen months from the death of the testator, and included no interest upon the legacy for any part of that period. It included an item of $177,754.03, charged as cash paid by the executors to Garner & Co. for moneys advanced by Garner & Co. to Thomas Garner, Jr., during his life and before the legacy of $1,000,000 was paid.

Garner & Go. was composed of William T. Garner and a nominal partner, who received a salary for his services and had no interest in the property or profits of the firm, and the moneys advanced by Garner & Co. to Thomas Garner, Jr., were in fact paid by William T. Garner, who, as executor of his father’s will at the time when such moneys were paid to Thomas Garner, Jr., and also at the time when said legacy was credited as paid, had in his hands ample funds from which to pay the interest upon said legacy, if Thomas Garner, Jr., was entitled to interest thereon from his father’s death.

William T, Garner died July 20, 1876, and the plaintiff has ever since been sole executor and trustee under the will of Thomas [510]*510Garner, Jr. This action is brought by the plaintiff to obtain permission to resign those positions, and for the appointment of a new executor and trustee, for an accounting subsequent to that before the surrogate in 1871, and for his discharge from further responsibility or accountability for the estate of Thomas Garner, Jr.

A previous action by the defendants, Harriet H. Garner and her daughter, against the plaintiff was brought soon after the death of William T. Garner, asking, with other relief, for the removal of the plaintiff as trustee and the appointment of a new trustee, for an accounting, and particularly that he be required to pay and make good the said sum of $177,754.03, as having been improperly allowed upon the accounting before the surrogate.

That action was discontinued upon a stipulation providing that a proceeding should be commenced by the plaintiff to obtain the results sought in this action, and that upon the accounting to be had in that proceeding the decree made by the surrogate, above referred to, should be final, conclusive and binding upon the parties, except as to certain items, the adjustment of which was agreed upon in the stipulation, and also except as to “ certain moneys, amounting in the aggregate to one hundred and seventy-seven thousand seven hundred and fifty-four dollars and three cents, which were paid by Garner & Oo. on drafts of Thomas Garner, Jr., deceased, and for his account between the death of Thomas Garner, Sr., and the death of Thomas Garner, Jr., the question being not as to the fact that the money was paid to and for the account of Thomas Garner, Jr., but as to whether such payments are properly chargeable against the legacy left by the said Thomas Garner, Sr., to the said Thomas Garner, Jr.” This action is not the proceeding contemplated when the stipulation was made, but is in the same direction, and the stipulation is conceded on both sides to be binding upon the parties to it in the' accounting had in this action.

This action was referred, and the referee by his report has found that Thomas Garner, Jr., was entitled to interest upon his legacy from his father’s death, and that the payments of cash in the item of $177,754.03 should be treated as made by William T. Garner on account of that interest, to the extent of it, and the excess only treated as a payment on the principal of the legacy, and he has readjusted the account to conform to those findings. By such [511]*511readjustment he finds the sum of $109,860.54 to have been on deposit with Garner & Co., in the hands or under the control of the executors of Thomas Garner, Jr., and uninvested on the 31st day of January, 1871, beyond the amount accounted for in the accounting before the surrogate, and he allows simple interest upon that amount from that date.

The plaintiff insists that interest was improperly allowed by the referee upon the legacy of $1,000,000, from the death of Thomas Garner, Sr., and also that certain sums paid to "William 3L Thorne as attorney for the executors of Thomas Garner, Jr., were allowed only in part.

The defendants, Harriet H. Garner and Frances M. Iselin, insist that compound and not simple interest should have been allowed upon the sum of $109,860.54, above mentioned.

These are the principal questions raised by the appeals, and the only ones necessary to be considered.

Ordinarily, a legacy is not payable until the time fixed by the will for its payment; or, if no time be fixed, until the period fixed by the statute has expired ; and until payable it draws no interest.

To this general rule there are several exceptions, the most important of which is the case of' a legacy left by a parent to a child, for whose maintenance no other provision is made, and who, unless interest be allowed, is without income intermediate the death of the testator and the legacy becoming due. In such case the legacy ‘draws interest from the death of the testator. (Green v. Belcher, 1 Atk., 505 ; Heath v. Perry, 3 id., 101; Hearle v. Greenbank, 3 id., 695, 716;

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Bluebook (online)
49 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 507, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thorn-v-garner-nysupct-1886.