Vance v. Levenson

73 P.2d 1351, 41 N.M. 708
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 1, 1937
DocketNo. 4309
StatusPublished

This text of 73 P.2d 1351 (Vance v. Levenson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vance v. Levenson, 73 P.2d 1351, 41 N.M. 708 (N.M. 1937).

Opinion

ZINN, Justice.

M. I. Levenson was appointed on April 23, 1935, as administrator of Baeza’s estate, and duly qualified the next day. He gave notice of such appointment by publication in a proper newspaper as required by 1929 CompSt. § 47-123. The record shows that the notice was published in the Las Cruces Citizen, a weekly newspaper published in the town of Las Cruces, Dona Ana county, for four consecutive weeks, to wit, April 25th through May 16, 1935. The four-week publication is required by Laws 1931, c. Í50, impliedly amending 1929 Comp.St. § 47-123, which only required publication for three weeks. The four weeks’ requirement was first enacted by Laws 1912, c. 49, § 5, and carried into 1915 Code, as section 4647, and into 1929 Comp.St. as section 113-103.

On September 15, 1935, the appellee mailed to the probate court a claim against the estate for $727.01. A-copy of this claim was mailed to the probate clerk, with instructions to serve the same/on the appellant. The probate clerk did mail the copy to the administrator.

On June 30, 1936, there was regularly served on attorney for appellant, the following notice:

“To: W. C. Whatley, Attorney for Administrator.
■ “You will please take notice that the undersigned attorneys for the claimant, Pecos Mercantile Company, a corporation, will call up for hearing before the Hon. Juan Guerra, Judge of the above entitled Court, at his office in the County Court House of Dona Ana County, New Mexico, on the 6th day of July, 1936, at the hour of 10:00 o’clock A. M., of said day, the claim of J. L. Vance, agent of the Pecos Mercantile Company, a corporation, the same being the sum of $456.25, due on a certain promissory note bearing date of March 18, 1931, made, executed and delivered by the deceased, Hilario Ramos Baeza, to said Pecos Mercantile Company, a corporation and heretofore filed herein as a claim against the estate of said decedent; that if the attention of the Court cannot be had at said time then said claim will be presented to the Court as soon thereafter as his attention may be had.
“Dated at Las Cruces, New Mexico, this 30th day of June, 1936.
“[SGD.] R. C. Garland
“J. H. Paxton
“Attorneys for Claimant
“Las Cruces, New Mexico.”

On July 8, 1936, the claim was allowed by the judge of the probate court and ordered paid. An appeal was taken from this order to the district court in due time, and a hearing de novo was had before said court on March 1, 1937. The district court allowed the same, from which order of allowance this appeal is prosecuted.

■ Upon request of appellant, the trial court made the following findings of fact:

“I. That Hilario Ramos Baeza died intestate in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, on April 11, 1935, leaving an estate in Dona Ana County, and a large number of heirs.
“II. That on April 24, 1935, M. I. Levenson was appointed and duly qualified by the giving of necessary bond and the making of the usual oath of office as administrator of the estate of said Hilario Ramos Baeza, deceased.
“III. That on September 15, 1935, J. L. Vance, agent for" Pecos Mercantile Company, filed a claim against said estate in the office of the Clerk of the probate court of Dona- Ana County, New Mexico, the said claim being based upon a promissory note given by said decedent to the Pecos Mercantile Company, on March 18, 1931, for the principal sum of $456.25, bearing interest from its date at the rate of 10% per annum, and the same having been stated in detail, properly entitled, and sworn to, but not having been approved by the administrator.
“IV. That no notice of a hearing on said claim was filed in. said probate court in said proceeding until .June 30, 1936, and no hearing. on the said claim was had until July 6, 1936, when in pursuance of the notice of hearing filed June 30, 1936, the probate court heard proof as to the validity of said claim and by his order of July 8, 1936, allowed the same and ordered it paid”—but refused to make the following conclusion of law as requested by appellant: “That said claim is barred, by reason of the failure of claimant to file in said court, within one year from the date of the appointment of said administrator, a notice of hearing thereon.”

At the request of the appellee, the court made the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

“The Court finds that the administrator of the estate of Hilario Ramos Baeza, deceased, wholly failed and .neglected to publish notice to creditors in the Spanish language as by law required.
“Claimant’s requested finding No. 2: The Court finds that the surnames of the decedent and all of his heirs at law, the same being his sole and only heirs, are Spanish names.
“Claimant’s requested conclusion of law No. 1: As a matter of law the Court con-eludes that no notice was given to creditors in the probating of this estate, in the Spanish language and that the same is necessary and essential to a proper administration of said estate, required by law; that by reason of the failure of the administrator to publish notice to creditors in the Spanish language the period for presenting claims against said estate has not lapsed and cannot lapse until such notice to creditors be published as by law required.”

Proper objections and exceptions were made by both .sides to the court’s findings and conclusions.

In the final judgment the district court disallowed the appellee’s claim for attorney’s fees as provided by the note, which note is the foundation of appellee’s claim, and only allowed the claim in the sum of $660.92.

The appellee did not object to the reduction in the trial court, though he does interpose an attempted cross-appeal in this court based on this point.

The appellant’s claim in this court is to the effect that because no notice of hearing was given on the claim, as required by 1929 Comp.St. § 47-504, to the administrator-within one year from the date of the appointment and qualification of such administrator, the claim was barred by virtue of 1929 Comp.St. § 47-505.

The appellee counters this assertion of appellant for the following reasons : “1. The claimant’s notice to the administrator, and the service thereof, is to be tested according to the requirements and objects of the Procedure Statute, not of the Limitation Statute ; 2. The claimant’s notice to the administrator herein, and the service thereof, was sufficient according to the requirements and objects of the Procedure Statute, and therefore sufficient for all purposes; 3. The question of the sufficiency of such notice, and of the service thereof, is a question of first impression in this jurisdiction; and 4. The publication of the administrator’s notice to creditors herein was not sufficient in law; and consequently no statutory year has been fixed for the filing of claims.”

As to the first contention of appellee that 1929 Comp.St.

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Bluebook (online)
73 P.2d 1351, 41 N.M. 708, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vance-v-levenson-nm-1937.