Edward Bonner v. Henry Gorman
| Citation | 53 L.Ed. 709,213 U.S. 86,29 S.Ct. 483 |
| Decision Date | 05 April 1909 |
| Docket Number | No. 102,102 |
| Parties | EDWARD BONNER and Edward L. Bonner, Plffs. in Err., v. HENRY P. GORMAN, Administrator of The Estate of Mary A. Cole, Deceased, et al |
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
Messrs. James P. Clarke, Rufus J. Williams, and J. R. Beasley for plaintiffs if error.
Mr. John Gatling for defendants in error.
[Argument of Counsel from page 87 intentionally omitted] Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:
In 1893 L. P. Featherstone qualified as administrator of the estate of Mary A. Cole, deceased, in the probate court of St. Francis county, Arkansas, with E. Bonner, one of the plaintiffs in error, as one of the sureties on his bond. In 1894, Featherstone, as administrator, filed his first settlement, and moved from Arkansas to Texas in 1895. Some time after he left the state, Henry P. Gorman, the defendant in error, was appointed by the probate court administrator in succession, and on February 1, 1898, he filed his first settlement, a second settlement in 1901, and in 1903 his third settlement. July 19, 1899, two of Featherstone's bondsmen, said E. Bonner and W. H. Coffey, appeared in the probate court in obedience to its order and filed the final settlement of Featherstone as administrator, in which there appeared to be a balance due to him of $23.57. To this settlement Gorman, administrator, and one of the heirs of the estate, appeared and filed exceptions. These exceptions were sustained by the probate court January 29, 1900, and a balance of $991.28 found due from Featherstone as administrator, and he was ordered to pay the same over to Gorman, as the administrator in succession. From this order and judgment of the probate court, Featherstone and his sureties, E. Bonner and Coffey, took an appeal to the circuit court, which appeal was dismissed by that court at the March term, 1901, for some informality, as the state supreme court says.
February 12, 1900, suit was brought in the circuit court of St. Francis county by Gorman, administrator, against said Bonner and Coffey, to enforce the payment of the said judgment of $991.28. In this suit Bonner and Coffey filed an answer and a cross complaint, to which Gorman, as administrator, filed a demurrer, which was sustained by the court, and judgment entered in favor of administrator Gorman against said sureties for $991.28. From this judgment the sureties appealed to the state supreme court, where it was affirmed October 10, 1903. 71 Ark. 480, 77 S. W. 602.
The court ruled, as sufficiently stated in the headnote, that, 'in a suit against the sureties of an administrator to recover the amount that had been adjudged by the probate court to be due by him to the estate, it is no defense that the probate court erred in finding that any amount was due by such administrator, as the error should have been corrected on appeal.'
To restrain the enforcement of this judgment, E. Bonner filed a bill in the chancery court of St. Francis county, Arkansas, at the December term, 1903. To this bill administrator Gorman and the heirs filed a demurrer on May 9, 1904, which was overruled by the court, and they then filed an answer. The chancery court rendered a decree in favor of plaintiff E. Bonner, enjoining Gorman, as administrator, and the heirs at law of Mary A. Cole, from executing that judgment. From this decree Gorman and the heirs at law appealed to the state supreme court, where it was, on October 22, 1906, reversed, annulled, and set aside, and the cause remanded to the chancery court, with directions to dismiss the complaint for want of equity. 80 Ark. 339, 97 S. W. 282.
The rulings of the court were that, 'under the code, a defendant cannot permit judgment to go against him upon a legal liability, and then enjoin the judgment in equity upon equitable grounds known before the judgment at law was rendered; a judgment of the circuit court against an administrator and his bondsmen will not be enjoined in equity on the ground that it was based on a void or fraudulent probate judgment, as that was matter of defense which might have been pleaded in the circuit court.' The court also added that 'it is not alleged or shown that there was any fraud in the procurement of the judgment at law, and we see no valid reason why it should be enjoined.'
At the December term, 1906, of the chancery cour...
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