Lewis v. Carson

• Decision Date: 19 December 1887
• Citation: 93 Mo. 587,6 S.W. 365
• Parties: LEWIS v. CARSON et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

6 S.W. 365

93 Mo. 587

LEWIS v. CARSON et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

December 19, 1887.

EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS — SETTLEMENT AND ACCOUNTING — DISBURSEMENTS — PAYMENT OF LEGACIES BEFORE DEBTS.

An administrator is not entitled to credits for payments to general legatees, where, when they were paid, he had funds in his hands sufficient to pay debts, which, by such payment, became insufficient, although the will provided that such legacies should be paid as soon as practicable; following Lewis v. Carson, 3 S. W. Rep. 483.

Appeal from St. Louis court of appeals. On rehearing.

Action by M. D. Lewis, public administrator, against James O. Carson, removed administrator of the estate of John B. Carson, deceased, and his sureties, to ascertain the amount of money and property in his hands. Judgment in the probate court was rendered for plaintiff for the sum of $8,752.55; upon appeal by defendants, affirmed by the circuit court; but, upon further appeal to the St. Louis court of appeals, reversed. Plaintiff appealed to the supreme court, which reversed the judgment of the court of appeals, affirming that of the circuit court, and defendants moved for a rehearing. For opinion of the supreme court on appeal, see 3 S. W. Rep. 483.

Broad & Haeussler and L. Wilcox, for appellant. E. T. Farish and Given Campbell, for respondents.

BLACK, J.

By the opinion heretofore filed, the late admisistrator, James O. Carson, stands charged with the proceeds of the two and one-half acres of land, as he had charged himself. The credits for amounts paid for the one-fourth interest therein, and in discharge of the mortgage thereon, are not disturbed. He is not deprived of any credit for moneys paid to the special legatees, so that a discussion of his right thereto is not required to a disposition of this case. These accounts are of long standing, and it was deemed proper to interfere with them so far only as the demands of creditors of the estate required. There was, it is true, other real estate belonging to the estate of John B. Carson. The record does not show when that property was sold by the devisees, but it seems to be conceded that it was sold after the administration had been closed in the probate court, and before the commencement of the suit to set aside that final settlement. However that may be, it is manifest we cannot undertake to adjust the rights, whatever they may be, between those purchasers and the surety on the bond of the late administrator in...