Trimble v. Marshall
| Decision Date | 03 June 1885 |
| Citation | 23 N.W. 645,66 Iowa 233 |
| Parties | TRIMBLE ET AL. v. MARSHALL |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Des Moines Circuit Court.
ACTION in equity to set aside an administrator's sale of real estate. There was a decree for the plaintiffs. The defendant appeals.
REVERSED.
P. Henry Smythe & Son and Thos. Hedge, Jr., for appellant.
Poor & Baldwin, for appellees.
The plaintiffs, T. B. Trimble, John Trimble and D. P. Trimble are sons and part of the heirs at law of A. G. Trimble deceased. The defendant obtained the allowance of a claim against the estate of the decedent, and a certain lot in the city of Burlington, belonging to the estate, was sold to pay the claim, the defendant being the purchaser. The plaintiffs aver that the claim, with the exception of a small portion, was without foundation, and that the allowance was procured by fraud. In our opinion the plaintiffs' position cannot be sustained. The claim for the most part is for money alleged to have been loaned by the defendant to the decedent, and for board and washing furnished the decedent during eleven years, commencing with 1866, for which a uniform charge was made of $ 140 per year.
That the decedent made his home at the defendant's house most of the time during those years seems to be certain. He evidently regarded the house as his home, and both he and his wife died there. The defendant was his son-in-law, and his relations to the defendant appear to have been of an amicable character. He was absent some, a part of the time doing business in a neighboring town; but during such time he kept his clothing at the defendant's house, and returned to it weekly, and had his washing and mending done there. Precisely how much of the time he was there it is impossible to determine. No accurate account seems to have been kept, and the evidence is loose and conflicting.
We have to say, however, that we cannot find from the evidence that the allowance was procured by fraud. Possibly some of the circumstances relied upon by the plaintiffs might, under the ingenious treatment of the plaintiffs' counsel, seem to so indicate; but, properly considered, we cannot regard them as of that character which would justify us in finding fraud. The decedent does not seem to have been a man of much means. The real estate in controversy appears to have been all that he had, and this, it is shown, he expected the defendant to have as his compensation for giving him a home. One witness, who appears to be wholly disinterested, testified that the decedent said that his property would not half pay the defendant for his trouble and expense. It is not our custom, in cases of this kind, to set out the evidence in detail, nor attempt to discuss it at all, even in a general way. Two or three matters upon which the plaintiffs principally rely may properly be noticed.
The administrator was one R. M. Trimble, a son of the deceased, and brother of the plaintiffs. His appointment was brought about, to some extent, through the solicitation and procurement of the defendant. His bond was signed by the defendant, and he was assisted by the defendant in procuring other signers. He did not live in Des Moines county, where the estate was to be administered upon, but in Van Buren county. He was not much acquainted with the business of administering upon estates, and accepted the appointment with some reluctance. These facts are relied upon as indicating fraud in procuring the allowance. But the decedent's wife being dead, the class next entitled to administer were his...
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Rabbett's Estate v. Connolly
...N. W. 480. The cases relied upon by appellant were either original proceedings in equity to set aside an allowance, as Trimble v. Marshall, 66 Iowa, 233, 23 N. W. 645, and Milburn v. East, 128 Iowa, 101, 102 N. W. 1116, or exceptions to the final report of the administrator as McLeary v. Do......
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Rabbett's Estate v. Connolly
...98 N.W. 480. The cases relied upon by appellant were either original proceedings in equity to set aside an allowance, as Trimble v. Marshall, 66 Iowa 233, 23 N.W. 645, Milburn v. East, 128 Iowa 101, 102 N.W. 1116, or exceptions to the final report of the administrator as McLeary v. Doran, 7......
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In re Sterner's Estate
... ... themselves amount to fraud, nor would they, if proven to be ... true, establish collusion, or amount to a fraud upon the ... court. Trimble et al. v. Marshall, 66 Iowa 233, 23 ... N.W. 645. The court had the claim before him. It showed on ... its face that it was barred by the statute ... ...
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In re Baumhover's Estate
...to interpose the plea of the statute of limitations against a claim which he believes to be justly due from the estate. Trimble v. Marshall, 66 Iowa, 233, 23 N. W. 645;Welch v. McGrath, 59 Iowa, 519, 10 N. W. 810, 13 N. W. 638. This rule obtains in many other states, whereas still others fo......