Heirs of Edwards v. Mounts

• Decision Date: 15 April 1884
• Docket Number: Case No. 5041.
• Citation: 61 Tex. 398
• Court: Texas Supreme Court
• Parties: THE HEIRS OF FRANCES B. EDWARDS v. W. H. MOUNTS, ADM'R.

61 Tex. 398

THE HEIRS OF FRANCES B. EDWARDS

v.W. H. MOUNTS, ADM'R.

Case No. 5041.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Apr. 15, 1884.

APPEAL from Denton. Tried below before the Hon. C. C. Potter.

W. H. Mounts, administrator of the estate of J. B. Edwards, deceased, filed a report of the condition of the estate in the county court of Denton county, and on the same day appellants filed their exceptions thereto, setting out, among other things, that they were the heirs of J. B. Edwards, deceased, and also of Mrs. Frances Edwards, then deceased, who was the mother of J. B. Edwards; claiming that J. B. Edwards, in his life-time, gave the policy of insurance on his life to his mother, Frances Edwards, and that the $5,000 reported as having been collected by the administrator was the proceeds of that policy. Contestants claimed that the $5,000 did not belong to this estate, but was the property of the contestants, because, they averred, that, at the death of said J. B. Edwards, the policy was the property of Frances Edwards, mother of appellants. Contestants further excepted to the report of the administrator, and to the allowing of each and all of the claims therein mentioned, because they never were filed as required by law, and were never with the clerk or other legal custodian, but were withdrawn and kept by their attorney, J. A. Carroll, and never had been with the papers in the case.

Upon a hearing of the report of the administrator and the exceptions of appellants, the county court rendered a judgment that the $5,000 so reported by the administrator as having been collected on the life insurance policy of J. B. Edwards was not the property of his estate; that it was owned at the date of the death of said J. B. Edwards by his mother, Frances Edwards, and that the money so collected belonged to her heirs, the appellants; directing the administrator to pay to them, less the sum of the costs, commissions and attorney's fees.

The administrator excepted to that part of the decree which adjudged the money to belong to contestants and directing the administrator to pay it over to them and the creditors mentioned in the administrator's report as holding accepted and approved claims against the estate of J. B. Edwards. The administrator and creditors appealed to the district court.

Contestants proposed to prove that the $5,000 reported by the administrator was not the property of the estate of J. B. Edwards, but was the property of contestants as heirs of Mrs. Frances B. Edwards; to which the counsel for the administrator objected because the county court, from which this cause was appealed to the district court, did not have jurisdiction to litigate the title to the $5,000; which objection the court sustained, and, on hearing, the court confirmed...