In re Grimm's Estate

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
• Writing for the Court: FELL, J.
• Citation: 37 A. 403,181 Pa.St. 233
• Decision Date: 17 May 1897
• Parties: In re GRIMM'S ESTATE. Appeal of MONROE.

37 A. 403
181 Pa.St. 233

In re GRIMM'S ESTATE.
Appeal of MONROE.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

May 17, 1897.

Appeals from orphans' court, Philadelphia county.

Adjudication of the account of Peter Monroe, executor of Victor B. Grimm, deceased. From an order confirming the adjudication, said executor and Caroline H. Grimm separately appeals. Reversed.

Joseph P. McCullen, for appellants.

Otto Wolff, John H. Sloan, and Wm. F. Johnson, for appellees.

37 A. 404

FELL, J. Victor B. Grimm, at the time of his death, was engaged in the retail liquor business. By his will he left all of his property to his wife, and appointed the appellant executor. The fixtures of the saloon and the stock of liquors were appraised at §50, and the widow became a purchaser of them from the executor at that price. She leased the property in which the business had been conducted by her husband, and two weeks after his death she petitioned the court of quarter sessions to transfer the license to her. Her petition was granted by the court, and she conducted the business on her own account for three months, when she sold the lease, good will, fixtures, and stock then on hand for $3,000, and on her petition the license was transferred to the purchaser. The estate proved to be insolvent, and upon objection by a creditor to her right to retain the money she had received from the sale of the property she agreed, after the transfer of the license to the purchaser; that the money should be held by the executor as a stakeholder until the right was determined. Upon the audit of the executor's account the auditing judge was asked to surcharge him with $3,000. This was done by the court, and the executor was directed to pay out of this fund the allowed claims of the creditors.

The things which the widow sold were the fixtures bought of the executor, the stock of liquors bought of others, the lease obtained of the owner of the building, and the good will of a business which she had conducted for three months. These things were hers, and to all of them she had an undoubted title. As the adjudication takes from her the price received from their sale, and applies it to the payment of the debts of another, we have looked with some interest for the reasons which are supposed to sustain it. As stated by the auditing judge they are these: The executor had in his custody or control a business for which the decedent had procured a license, which had some months to run. This business may have had a probable value beyond the value of the stock and fixtures, depending upon the contingency of the transfer of the license. The executor was, therefore, "bound to make at least such a representation to the court as might have induced the court to...