Baugh v. Barrett

• Decision Date: 12 October 1886
• Citation: 69 Iowa 495,29 N.W. 425
• Parties: BAUGH v. BARRETT, ADM'R, ETC.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

69 Iowa 495

29 N.W. 425

BAUGH

v.BARRETT, ADM'R, ETC.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

October 12, 1886.

Appeal from Marion circuit court.

Plaintiff filed a claim against the estate of Mary Z. Swallow, deceased, of which defendant is administrator. Defendant answered, alleging that he had no assets of the estate in his hands with which to pay said claim. He also alleged that the intestate, during her life-time, had received certain moneys from the government of the United States which had been granted as pension, on account of disabilities contracted by her husband while in the military service of the government, which she gave to her daughter. But he alleged that said moneys were exempt from seizure for the satisfaction of plaintiff's claim. Plaintiff then filed a pleading, which is denominated an amendment to his claim, in which he alleged that the moneys bestowed by the intestate on her daughter were given by way of gift a few days before her death; that said moneys belonged to the intestate in her own right, and were subject to seizure for the satisfaction of her debts, and that the gift was in fraud of the rights of her creditors; and he prayed that defendant, who is also the guardian of the daughter, she being a minor, be made a party defendant in that capacity, and that said moneys be subjected to the payment of his claim. Defendant, in his capacity both of administrator and guardian, answered the pleading; and the cause was submitted to the court on an agreed statement of facts, and the court entered judgment establishing the claim, and subjecting the moneys to its payment, and from that judgment defendant appealed.Stone, Ayers & Gamble, for appellant.

M. H. Baugh, for appellee.

REED, J.

The agreed statement on which the cause was submitted established the following facts: That the money in question was granted by the government of the United States as a pension, and was received by the intestate from the government after the death of her husband, on account of whose disability it was granted. She loaned the money to O. B. Ayers, and took his note for the amount. A few days before her death she assigned said note to her daughter, who was a minor and defendant's ward, and delivered it to a third party for her use and benefit. She died on the fifth of March, 1884, and on the eleventh of the same month defendant was appointed administrator of her estate, and soon after that was also appointed guardian of said minor, and in that capacity he received said note, and retains possession of it. Plaintiff's claim is for an indebtedness contracted by the intestate after she received the money from the government, but before the gift to the daughter, and it was filed in the circuit court on the twenty-sixth of March, 1884; and unless said note can be subjected to its payment there are no assets of the estate out of which it can be satisfied.

1. The first position urged by counsel for appellant is that the circuit court had no power, in a single proceeding, to grant the measure of relief given by the judgment in question. It is insisted that as the proceedings for the allowance of claims against estates is a matter solely within...