Crump v. Hart
| Decision Date | 24 May 1915 |
| Parties | THOMAS CRUMP and ZULA MURPHY, Respondents, v. J. D. HART and W. R. MURPHY, Administrators of the estate of SARAH J. CRUMP, deceased, VIRGINIA HART, MINNIE MURPHY, FENTON GRIFFIN AND MARY STROTHER, Appellants |
| Court | Kansas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Boone Circuit Court.--Hon. D. H. Harris, Judge.
AFFIRMED.
Judgment affirmed.
N. T Gentry for appellants.
Finley & Sapp for respondents.
This is a suit in equity for an accounting, filed in the circuit court of Boone county, May 15, 1914, by Thomas Crump and Zula Murphy, against the administrators of the estate of Sarah J Crump, deceased, and her heirs and distributees. The court decided the issues raised by the pleadings in favor of plaintiffs and rendered judgment in accordance with the prayer of the petition. Defendants appealed.
The facts of the case are as follows: Granville Crump died testate in Boone county in February, 1907. He was survived by his widow, Sarah J. Crump, by four of their children--the present defendants, Virginia Hart, Minnie Murphy, Fenton Griffin and Mary Strother, and by plaintiffs, his two grandchildren through a former marriage. In his will he devised and bequeathed his real and personal estate to his widow "to have and to hold for her natural life," and provided that at her death the estate remaining in her hands should be divided equally among the said children and grandchildren, share and share alike. Among the assets of the estate, which was duly administered in the probate court of Boone county, were two promissory notes executed to Granville Crump by O. B. Hart and E. L. Murphy, respectively, and these notes were held by the administrator of the estate with will annexed, and on final settlement were turned over to the widow who receipted for them May 18, 1909, as follows:
"Received of J. D. Hart, Admr., with will annexed, of the estate of Granville Crump, deceased, . . . two notes, one executed by O. B. Hart and the other by E. L. Murphy, the same being the amount due me as sole legatee under said will, as shown by final settlement of said estate, this day filed with the probate court."
Mrs. Crump held these notes until her death which occurred in Boone county, February 19, 1913. Afterwards the defendant, administrators of her estate (she died intestate), inventoried them as assets belonging to her estate, collected them and were about to make final settlement when this suit was brought. Under the terms of the will of Granville Crump, each plaintiff had a one-sixth interest in the proceeds of the notes and the purpose of the present suit is to secure that interest for them, but if the notes were the property of Sarah J. Crump at the time of her death plaintiffs had no interest in them, since the four children of Granville and Sarah J. Crump were her sole heirs and distributees.
In their answer the defendant children do not claim that these notes were the sole property of their mother, but do allege that though Granville Crump was the sole payee of the notes, they "were executed for borrowed money, which money belonged to said Granville Crump and Sarah J. Crump in equal parts" and that plaintiffs, therefore, have each a one-sixth interest under the will in only one-half of the proceeds of the notes which share "defendant administrators were ready and willing and offered to pay the plaintiffs before the institution of this suit and are now ready and willing to pay them and the remaining defendants were willing that said administrators should pay said sum to each of the plaintiffs."
The reply pleads estoppel and that the claim of defendants that Sarah J. Crump owned a half...
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