Heinz v. Vawter
| Decision Date | 07 April 1936 |
| Docket Number | 43308. |
| Citation | 266 N.W. 486,221 Iowa 714 |
| Parties | HEINZ v. VAWTER. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Marshall County; C. B. Stiger, Judge.
An action by an alleged administrator to obtain possession of the property of an estate which had already been disbursed and distributed by the heirs without administration. From an order dismissing plaintiff's petition, this appeal is prosecuted.
Affirmed.
Boardman & Cartwright, of Marshalltown, for appellant.
F. E Northup, of Marshalltown, for appellee.
Millie Brandt Vawter departed this life on the 9th day of September 1930, leaving her husband, H. M. Vawter, the defendant-appellee herein, and her father, Edward Heinz, as her sole surviving heir at law. She died without issue and intestate. She left an estate consisting of personal property of approximately the value of $11,297.38. No administration was had upon her estate. Her husband, H. M. Vawter, took possession of the entire estate and paid all known debts of the estate, including the expenses of the last sickness burial, and the erection of a monument aggregating $1,911.95. He also paid to her father, Edward Heinz, as sole heir at law, the sum of $2,000 in full settlement of his distributive share in the estate of his daughter, Millie B. Vawter, taking a receipt therefor which is in the following language: Some time in 1934, the said Edward Heinz petitioned for his appointment and was appointed administrator of the estate of his daughter, and as administrator filed a petition in equity in the present case against H. M. Vawter, alleging that the said Vawter was in the possession of the entire estate of the deceased, Millie Brandt Vawter, and that upon demand he had refused to surrender the same to the plaintiff, and in said petition asks judgment against H. M. Vawter for the sum of $11,297.38, to the end that it may be administered upon.
It will be observed that there was no attack made in the plaintiff's petition in opposition to the settlement of the estate matter outside of court by the husband; there was no claim of any fraud or misrepresentation or unconscionable advantage having been taken by the husband, Vawter. There is also an absence of any allegation that any debts of the estate remain unpaid. As to what allegations and representations were made to the court at the time the administrator was appointed, four years after the death of the deceased, the record is silent, but in the face of the facts as disclosed by the record in this case, there was no good reason for the appointment of an administrator. Under the statute the husband was entitled to $7,500.00 of the estate of his deceased wife. In addition to this, he paid to the father of his wife in settlement of his full distributive share in the estate $2,000, and in addition debts of the last sickness and burial amounting...
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