Good Samaritan Hospital v. Mississippi Valley Trust Co.

• Decision Date: 23 March 1909
• Citation: 117 S.W. 637,137 Mo. App. 179
• Parties: GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL et al. v. MISSISSIPPI VALLEY TRUST CO. et al.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

117 S.W. 637

137 Mo. App. 179

GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL et al. v. MISSISSIPPI VALLEY TRUST CO. et al.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

March 23, 1909.

1. WILLS (§ 734)—"INTEREST" ON LEGACIES.

Interest as used in connection with the payment of legacies is the compensation allowed by law for the deprivation of a legacy beyond the period when it is payable under the will or by statute.

2. WILLS (§ 734) — INTEREST ON LEGACIES — CONTEST OF WILL.

A legacy does not carry interest, pending a contest of the will, after one year from the original grant of letters testamentary, for, as the law, and not an act of the executor, suspends payment of the legacy until the determination of the contest, the administrator pendente lite appointed pursuant to Rev. St. 1899, § 13 (Ann. St. 1906, p. 342), having no power in the meantime to pay it over, the legacy itself does not fall due until capable of being paid by the executor.

3. WILLS (§ 734)—INTEREST ON LEGACIES— DEMAND—NECESSITY.

No demand is necessary to cause interest to run on a legacy when due and payable.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Robt. M. Foster, Judge.

Motion in the probate court by the Good Samaritan Hospital and others, legatees under the will of Frederick Heman, deceased, to be allowed interest on their respective legacies after one year from the original grant of letters testamentary. The probate court allowed the interest and an appeal was taken to the circuit court by Minnie Hartman and others, where the interest was again allowed, and Minnie Hartman and such others appeal. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

T. J. Rowe, for appellant Hartman. Hickman P. Rodgers, for appellant Heman. Geo. W. Lubke and Geo. W. Lubke, Jr., for respondents.

REYNOLDS, P. J.

By his will Frederick Heman, among other bequests, bequeathed to the Good Samaritan Hospital and the pastor of Zion's German Lutheran Church $1,000 each, and to the German Protestant Orphans' Home $3,000. The will was admitted to probate by the probate court of the city of St. Louis, and letters testamentary granted thereon to the Mississippi Valley Trust Company January 21, 1902. On February 25, 1902, the executor named filed proof of publication of the letters. On March 22, 1902, John C. Heman, one of the sons of the testator, instituted an action in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis against his brothers and sisters and their descendants, as also against all the other legatees and devisees named in the will, or their representatives, including the representatives of the three institutions above named, contesting the will. On the 21st of April, 1902, notice of the contest was filed in the probate court, and the authority of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company, as executor, suspended; an administrator of the estate pendente lite being appointed. The trial of the contest over the will resulted in a verdict and judgment sustaining it, from which judgment the contestor, sole plaintiff in the contest, perfected an appeal to the Supreme Court, and on May 24, 1905, that court affirmed the judgment sustaining the will. A transcript of the judgment of the circuit court sustaining the will on its affirmance by the Supreme Court was filed in the clerk's office of the probate court July 22, 1905, and thereafter the Mississippi Valley Trust Company, executor, again took on the administration of the estate by virtue of its appointment under the will, and on the 26th day of January, 1906, paid to the pastor in charge of Zion's German Lutheran Church the legacy of $1,000, to the representatives of the Good Samaritan Hospital the legacy of $1,000, and to the German Protestant Orphans' Home the legacy of $3,000. In accepting payment, however, these legatees in and by their receipts reserved the right to demand whatever interest they might be or were legally entitled to upon said legacies by reason of payment having been withheld from them.

The estate of the testator consisted of both real and personal property, and the value of the residue, after paying all specific legacies, satisfying all the specific legacies, satisfying all claims of creditors, devisees and other legatees, as well as all costs and expenses attendant upon the administration and settlement of the estate, was more than sufficient to pay the principal of these general legacies, as also to pay interest accruing on them between the expiration of one year after taking out of the letters and the date on which the principal of the legacies was paid. Upon the refusal of the executor to pay this interest, the three legatees named on March 8, 1906, filed in the probate court of the city of St. Louis a motion which, after reciting the fact of the payment of the principal of the legacies, averred that they have received no interest thereon, had received the payment of the principal of the legacies under protest and under an agreement that by the receipt of the principal they should not be prejudiced or affected in their claim to interest, and for ground of motion stated, first, that their legacies became due and payable in one year after the original grant of the letters executory upon the estate of the testator, to wit, the 21st day of January, 1902, and that they had not contested the will of the testator; second, that they are entitled to interest on their several legacies from January 21, 1903, that being one year after the letters had been granted at 6 per cent. per annum. They accordingly moved the probate court to enter up an order against the Mississippi Valley Trust Company as executor to pay them interest upon their several legacies at that rate from that date until date of payment. The motion was heard in the probate court on an agreed statement of facts, which, setting out the will in full, set out the other matters hereinbefore noted. The probate court sustained the motion and ordered payment of the interest on these legacies at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum from January 21, 1903. An appeal from this action of the probate court was taken to the circuit court by Minnie Hartman, a daughter of Frederick Heman, deceased, who was a son of the testator, and by Lottie Heman, executrix of the estate of John Henry Heman, deceased, also a son of Frederick Heman, deceased. The trial in the circuit court resulted in like action as that had in the probate court; that is to say, the interest claimed from a year after the date of the original grant of letters was allowed in favor of the legatees named. From this action of the circuit court, after a motion for new trial had been duly filed and overruled and exception saved, the two Hartman ladies prosecuted an appeal to this court.

The able counsel for appellants and for respondents have filed briefs and arguments in support of their respective contentions which display an unusual amount of research on their part. As the report of the case in setting out these briefs will undoubtedly cover the points made and the authorities cited in support of them, we do not consider it...