In re Sherman
Decision Date | 09 December 1919 |
Citation | 227 N.Y. 350,125 N.E. 546 |
Parties | In re SHERMAN. In re DEYOE'S ESTATE. |
Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Frank R. Sherman, temporary administrator of the goods, chattels, and credits of William S. Deyoe, deceased, renounced the executorship after decedent's will was admitted to probate, and another was appointed administrator with the will annexed. From an order of the Appellate Division affirming a decree of the surrogate settling the accounts of the temporary administrator and surcharging him with the sum of $3,297, the value of three bonds of the American Wood Board Company which he claimed as a gift, he appeals.
Order of the Appellate Division (173 App. Div. 988,158 N. Y. Supp. 1130) and decree of the Surrogate Court reversed, and new trial granted, with costs to abide the event.
See, also, In re Van Denburg, 178 App. Div. 237,164 N. Y. Supp. 966.
Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third department.
Edgar T. Brackett, of Saratoga Springs, for appellant.
Jenkins & Barker, of Glen Falls, for respondent.
On March 25, 1914, William S. Deyoe, a resident of the town of Northumberland, Saratoga county, died, leaving a last will and testament in which the appellant, Frank R. Sherman, was named as sole executor. Probate being contested, the appellant on the 31st day of March was granted letters of temporary administration. After the will was admitted to probate Frank R. Sherman renounced the executorship, and letters of administration with the will annexed were issued to Maude Van Denburgh, the respondent herein, who duly qualified and has since been acting in that capacity.
On August 20, 1914, the appellant filed his petition and account as such temporary administrator. He failed to include therein three bonds of the American Wood Board Company. Objections to this omission having been filed, the surrogate after a hearing surcharged the appellant with the sum of $3,297, the value of the bonds, with interest thereon from March 1, 1914. The appellant claimed that these bonds were a gift to him by the deceased shortly before his death. The surrogate made the following findings of fact:
‘(13) That said Sherman testified truly in relation to said matter, but was not sufficiently corroborated by other evidence to establish his claim to said bonds.’
[1] In his opinion the surrogate said:
‘While I fully believe that Mr. Sherman told the exact truth, I feel constrained to hold as matter of law, upon the authority of the foregoing cases, that the evidence is insufficient to establish a gift of the bonds to him.’
The cases referred to were Hamlin v. Stevens, 177 N. Y. 39, 69 N. E. 118, and Rosseau v. Rouss, 180 N. Y. 116, 72 N. E. 916. At the time of this decision by the surrogate he had not before him our decision in the case of McKeon v. Van Slyck, 223 N. Y. 392, 397,119 N. E. 851, 852, as it was not decided until May, 1918. There we stated as follows:
After explaining the decision of Hamlin v. Stevens, the opinion further states:
[2] The learned surrogate was therefore in error when he ruled in this case that the testimony of the appellant, although true, required corroboration as a matter of law. This matter having been set forth and the attitude of the surrogate fully stated in his findings of fact, the unanimous affirmance by the Appellate Division does not preclude us from reversing a judgment which those findings do not support or justify; in other words, the judgment is based upon insufficient and improper findings.
[3] While the testimony of the appellant was not required as a matter of law to be corroborated by other evidence in order to make out a gift, yet it did call for a very careful scrutiny and examination in accordance with the suggestions made in Ward v. N. Y. Life Ins. Co., 225 N. Y. 314, 322,122 N. E. 207, 209. It was there said:
If upon a rehearing of this case the evidence of the appellant is admitted, it should be treated in the light of these suggestions by the surrogate in determining whether or not a gift has been established.
Without of course designing to review the findings made by the surrogate, we may refer to the evidence for the purpose of illustration of what we have said.
William S. Deyoe was the owner of a number of farms and woodlots and tenement houses in Saratoga Springs and Schuylerville. He was engaged in lumbering, operated a sawmill, and had a large number of men and teams employed in his business. On the 5th day of November, 1914, being about to enter St. Peter's Hospital in Albany for a serious operation, which resulted in his death on March 25th, he requested the appellant to take charge of his farms and lots during his absence, and placed in his hands three $1,000 bonds which are involved in this proceeding. Whether the bonds were given solely to make provision for funds for the purpose of carrying on the business or given outright as the appellant's absolute property is a question even on the testimony of the appellant himself to be determined by the surrogate.
He swore that the bonds were handed to him to keep himself supplied with money. Deyoe was going to the hospital and Sherman was to look after his business affairs while he was away. Sherman says that he understood from the conversation that Deyoe was giving him these bonds or two of them to carry on the business so far as necessary. At a later time Deyoe, he says, told him that all the bonds were his. While it was not necessary as a matter of law that Sherman's testimony should be corroborated to establish a gift, it surely needed careful scrutiny and analysis to ascertain whether it had that reasonableness and probability, in view of all the circumstances, as would naturally lead to the belief that a gift had been made and intended. Sherman was the only one interested in establishing the gift, and was foreclosed from testifying as to transactions with the deceased under section 829 of the Code of Civil Procedure. His statements regarding the nature of his possession were received apparently on the ground that the respondent had opened the door to a full inquiry by one or two questions asked by examining counsel. The situation and condition of the deceased, the necessities of the business, the...
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Estate of Goldman v. Commissioner
...in view of all the circumstances, as would naturally lead to the belief that a gift had been made and intended." In re Sherman, 125 N.E. 546, 547 (N.Y. 1919); cf. McKeon v. Van Slyck, 119 N.E. 851, 852 (N.Y. 1918); Glasberg v. Krauss, 260 N.Y.S.2d 570 (App. Div. 1965); 62 NY Jur. 2d, Gifts,......
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Collinson, In Matter of
...where a gift has been established by the sole uncorroborated testimony of the donee. The Court of Appeals of New York in In re Sherman, 1919, 227 N.Y. 350, 125 N.E. 546, in deciding whether an alleged gift (certain bonds) by the deceased Deyoe to Sherman made shortly before Deyoe's death co......
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Will of Satterlee, In re
...to the effect that the appellate court may do it in any other case, but this court declined to follow that dictum in Matter of Sherman, 227 N.Y. 350, 125 N.E. 546, decided in 1919, after the 1914 revision of Surrogate's Court practice. This is made crystal clear in Judge McLaughlin's dissen......
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Gordon's Estate, In re
...and, although it is clear that corroboration of his testimony or supporting evidence was not required as a matter of law (Matter of Sherman, 227 N.Y. 350, 125 N.E. 546; Matter of Presender's Estate, 285 App.Div. 109, 117, 135 N.Y.S.2d 418, 426), we find his testimony on this record to be le......