Ball v. Tompkins

• Decision Date: 11 February 1890
• Parties: BALL v. TOMPKINS et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

41 F. 486

BALL v. TOMPKINS et al.

United States Circuit Court, W.D. Michigan, Southern Division.

February 11, 1890

T. J O'Brien, for complainant.

Joseph H. Tompkins, for J. H. & M. M. Tompkins.

SEVERENS J.

The facts material to the purposes of the present motion are substantially as follows: On the 4th day of February, 1876 Byron D. Ball, of Grand Rapids, died testate. He left a widow, Martha M.,-- one of the defendants,-- and four children, of whom the complainant is one, and three of the defendants are others. The property left by him consisted principally of real estate known as the 'Ball Block,' in the city of Grand Rapids. The value of his estate at the time of his decease was about the sum of $35,000 over and above incumbrances. By his will, he bequeathed his household furniture, and his books and pictures, to his wife, and then devised the Ball block to his executors, who are his widow and Harvey J. Hollister, who is also one of the defendants in trust, to collect the rents and profits thereof until the 1st day of January, 1890, and therefrom to pay the taxes, insurance, repairs, and interest on incumbrances, and the remainder, in five equal shares, to his widow and four children, annually or oftener. He also directed them to file annual accounts of their receipts and payments in the office of the judge of probate for Kent county, in which the city is situated; and he authorized them to mortgage the property, with the approval of the judge of probate, for the purpose of raising money necessary to rebuild or repair, in case of destruction or great damage by fire or other cause, or to pay off incumbrances. And his will further provided that the trust aforesaid should terminate on January 1, 1890, and that thereupon the real estate aforesaid should go to the widow and children,-- one equal undivided fifth part to each. And the testator charged his personal property and his other real estate with the payment of his debts and the expenses of administration, and authorized his executors to sell such other real estate only if found necessary to pay such debts and expenses, after using the personal property, or for the protection and improvement of the Ball block. This will was duly admitted to probate in the Kent county probate court on the 6th day of March, 1876, and letters testamentary were issued to the executors therein named. They assumed and have exercised the duties of the trust. The widow took charge of the children, and lived with them in rooms in the block; and for some years matters went on, without serious disagreement between the executors, in accordance with some of the provisions of the will, though not with all. In 1883, Mrs. Ball married the defendant Joseph H. Tompkins, who had for a time previous to that been her legal adviser in matters pertaining to the estate; and he has continued to act as such ever since, residing with her in the block. From a time shortly previous to this marriage to the present, the executors have disagreed. Litigation has been going on between them, of a recriminatory character, until, at the time of the commencement of this suit by the filing of the bill, the defendant Hollister had practically either almost wholly withdrawn or been ousted from the management of the estate, and the defendants Tompkins were in control. It is not the purpose of the court now to express any opinion as to whether Mr. Hollister has been in fault or not, but it is apparent from the record that he has maintained his office as executor only by a struggle. On the 3d day of April, 1889, the complainant filed his bill in this court, charging gross and long-continued mismanagement of the estate in many particulars, which are set out in the bill, and also charging therein, in substance, that Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins, in violation of the trust contained in Mr. Ball's will, have absorbed and appropriated to their own use the income of the estate; that the children were receiving nothing; that the insurance was not kept up; that the taxes for two years were in arrears; and that many unjust and groundless claims and accounts in favor of Mrs. Tompkins had been presented to the probate court, and were allowed, which, with the increasing volume of incumbrances, resulting from non-payment of interest, threatened to swallow up the estate. The defendants denied the charges of mismanagement of the estate and of violation of the trust, and they also denied all the bad faith charged in the bill, and alleged that they were doing the best they could for the estate, and for all concerned; and they further showed that a petition for a license to sell the real estate,-- the Ball block,-- for the payment of debts and expenses, had, previous to the filing of the bill, been presented to the probate court, and had been allowed, and was then pending on appeal in the circuit court of the state for the county of Kent. This court, without undertaking to pass upon all the charges made in the bill, but in view of the fact that it clearly appeared that the executors had been for a long time in disagreement; that the complainant had received for many years but a mere trifle from the estate; that the estate itself, once valuable, was now so nearly exhausted that it was a question whether, in its then management, it would do more than pay its liabilities; and that the interest and taxes which were left unpaid must be provided for, or the property sold on mortgage or tax-sale,-- appointed a receiver to take the rents and profits, and bring them into court. The court, in appointing a receiver, expressed a doubt as to whether this receivership should last beyond the declared trust expiring on the 1st of January, 1890. The foregoing statement, though not enumerating all the details of fact alleged on either side, covers all that are now necessary to be stated.

The receiver has acted and collected all the rents to January 1st, and a motion is now made to discharge him. The ground of the motion is that the probate court is the proper tribunal for the trial and determination of such matters; that the time has now elapsed during which the executors were to act as trustees in taking the rents and profits; that they now have the right to possession as the officers of the probate court; and that the latter court has possession of the subject-matter of the controversy by a jurisdiction already extended over it when the present suit was commenced. The complainant has submitted, and asked leave to file, a supplemental bill setting forth the original proceedings, the expiration of the trust to receive rents and profits as expressly created by the terms of the will, and the arrival of the date when the right of the devisees to the possession accrued, and praying for further relief by partition, among other things. There can be no doubt that the probate courts of Michigan are clothed with authority, by the laws of the state, to hear and determine all questions arising in the ordinary course of administration and distribution of estates. It has obviously been the policy of the state to distribute the judicial power in such a way as to produce this result. But it is also clear that it was foreseen and expected that questions would arise which would require the exercise of the jurisdiction of a court having ampler powers for inquiry and redress than the probate court is invested with. The state court of chancery has concurrent jurisdiction in respect to some of the matters with which the probate court is authorized to deal; and it stands in waiting to help out the weaker tribunal, by taking cognizance of cases and questions, when there is no adequate remedy in the probate court. It is not necessary to determine whether the present case is one in which the state court in chancery would be authorized to entertain jurisdiction. The circuit courts of the United States were, from their original grant of authority, invested with all the then exercised powers of the court of chancery in England, so far as they had application in our political system. Green's Adm'x v. Creighton, 23 How. 90; Pennsylvania v. Bridge Co., 13 How. 518; U.S. v. Howland, 4 Wheat. 108; Fontain v. Ravenel, 17 How. 369; Payne v. Hook, 7 Wall. 425. One branch of the English chancery jurisdiction was the administration of estates. The ecclesiastical courts in that country had very limited powers in such matters. The jealousy with which they had been regarded had kept them shorn of authority to do many things necessary to a complete administration, and the marshaling and distribution of assets. Some points of authority had been gained, and others, equally essential to any systematic jurisdiction, had not. What were possessed were crude and imperfect. The consequence was that the court of chancery exercised its powers, and applied its doctrines, in administering estates. As soon as the representative of an estate was appointed, he was regarded as charged with a trust. This brought him, under the familiar doctrine, within the control of that court. The ecclesiastical courts had no power to deal with trusts. The examination and settling of accounts was often necessary. This, again, the ecclesiastical courts could not do, but it was peculiarly a province of the court of chancery. The ecclesiastical courts could not marshal and distribute the assets. The court of chancery had ample power to do this. That was the condition of things, and this the scope of the equity practice, which are to be regarded when we contemplate the jurisdiction of the federal courts in equity conferred by the judiciary act. 1 Story,Eq.Jur. § 532 et seq. The power and authority over these subjects thus conferred remain to this time, unabridged by any legislation of congress, the same in every state of the Union. They cannot...