Coombs v. Coombs

• Decision Date: 30 April 1885
• Parties: COOMBS, Curator, v. COOMBS, Executrix, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

86 Mo. 176

COOMBS, Curator,

v.COOMBS, Executrix, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

April Term, 1885.

Appeal from Greene Circuit Court.--HON. J. C. CRAVENS, Special Judge.

AFFIRMED.

John O'Day and E. D. Kenna for appellant.

C. W. Thrasher for respondent.

BLACK, J.

John Coombs, as curator of Leslie Coombs, filed his account in the Greene probate and common pleas court for allowance against the estate of William Coombs, who died in 1880. The account is for various items of money of the ward, advanced or loaned to William Coombs from January to June, 1879, amounting to some five hundred dollars or more. William Coombs had been appointed curator of this minor, but, failing to give bond, John Coombs was appointed curator for Leslie and Catharine Coombs.

Plaintiff's evidence showed that the items of money, with one or two exceptions, were paid to William by checks, signed by John as curator of Leslie. It also tended to show that William claimed the right to handle these funds; that he understood the money was from the ward's estate, and had agreed to give a note and security therefor, but failed so to do, before his death.

The defence was, that the money was paid to him, William, in discharge of debts due to him from John, for services rendered to the firm of H. O. Dow & Co., of which John was a member, and for other services.

The finding and judgment was for defendant. The circuit court heard the cause on errors alleged to have been made by the probate court, in the admission of evidence for the defendant.

1. Witnesses were permitted to testify as to the probable annual expense of William E. Coombs, in the support of himself and family. Defendant had shown that the salary of William, with H. O. Dow & Co., was from fifty dollars to sixty dollars per month. The evidence was probably offered to show, or as tending to show, an indebtedness to him on that account, but it was of no value for that purpose. An indebtedness cannot be established by such testimony. Besides, much of it was no more than the opinion of witnesses as to his probable expenses.

2. The inventory of the estate of William E. Coombs, and the settlement of John Coombs, as curator of Catharine Coombs, should have been excluded. They neither proved, nor tended to prove or disprove, any issue in the case. The executrix could not make evidence in that way, and the settlement had no relevancy whatever.

3. A paper purporting to be a statement of accounts from 1875 to 1877, between John and William,...