87 Tenn. 172 | Tenn. | 1889
The complainants are the distributees of James Kerley, who died intestate in 1859. They charge that Elisha Oglesby qualified as administrator upon his estate in July, 1859, and that he filed an inventory of the effects of the decedent and a report of sales of personalty during the year following, and that in 1869 he made a partial settlement in the County Court, but that he subsequently died without completing the administration by a final settlement. This bill is filed for the purpose of surcharging and falsifying the settlement made, and to recover their several distributive shares.
After much proof had been taken the Chancellor, upon the pleadings and proof, decreed an account, and settled the principles upon which it should be taken. In this decree he ruled “that Oglesby’s estate is not protected in this cause by any statute of limitations, for the reason that Oglesby, as administrator of Kerley, was an express trustee, and the estate had never been settled.” This defense of the statute of limitations presents the first and most important question which is presented by the assignment of errors.
As far back as 1817 it was decided by this Court that the statute of limitations, as it then existed, did not bar the suit of a distributee. Pinkerton v. Walker, 3 Hay., 221. In Cartright v. Cartright, 4 Hay., 134, and McDonald v. McDonald, 8 Yerg., 145, the same rule was repeated, and applied to the suit of a legatee. These decisions were followed in several other reported cases, including that of Lafferty v. Turley, 3 Sneed, 157.
First — That an administrator, by operation of his appointment by the Court having jurisdiction, and an executor, by reason of the will under which he was nominated, were express and not implied trustees.
Second — That the trusts incident to such an office were trusts cognizable alone in courts of equity, there being then no remedy at law by which a distributee could recover a distributive share or a legatee his legacy.
Third — That the statutes of limitation, as they then were, applied to the forms of. action and not to the cause of action; and, as bills in equity were not expressly mentioned, that therefore, where the cause of action was a trust cognizable in equity alone, the statute did not apply to suits concerning such trusts.
Upon these premises these decisions were logical, and in accord with the decisions in the courts of Great Britain. It was never held in these eases, or any other made by this Court, that the statutes of limitation were not as applicable in equity as, at law, when there was any remedy at law, even in cases of express trusts. Said Chief Justice Catron:
“ Courts of equity, equally with courts of law, are bound by the statutes of limitation in all the varieties of bailments — loans, pawns, deposits, etc.— although express trusts, where there are convenient*177 remedies at law or by Rill in equity.” 3 Yerg., 231. Judge Green, that very eminent master of the principles of equity, in delivering the opinion of the Court in Haynie v. Hall’s Executor, said:
“ The statute of limitations prescribes that certain forms of action shall Re barred within the time limited, and, therefore, in its terms it does not apply to courts of equity; Rut the courts of chancery, Roth of Great Britain and of this country, have uniformly held that in cases where any remedy exists at law, if a court of chancery gains jurisdiction of a cause, the time fixed in the statute as a bar to the action at law will also be a bar to a bill in chancery.” 5 Hum., 291.
-The sound and well-settled rule in courts of equity is that the statutes of limitation are applicable in every case in equity, when the trust is not a technical one, of which courts of equity alone take cognizance. The doctrine, as stated by Chancellor Kent in Kane v. Bloodgood, 7 Johns. Ch. Rep., —, is “ that the trusts intended by the courts of equity not to be reached or affected by the statutes of limitation are those technical and continuing trusts, which are not cognizable at law, but fall within the proper, peculiar, and exclusive jurisdiction of this Court.” See also Peebles v. Greene, 6 Lea, 471, where Judge McFarland clearly discusses this question.
Down to the enactment of the Code in 1858, there was no remedy at law against administrators in behalf of a distributee or legatee for the re
Another and more impoi'tant change in the law, as it existed at the time of the decisions referred to, was made by § 2776, which originated with the Code. This section contains the statute of limitation relied upon by the defendants in this cause, and it reads as follows:
“Actions against guardians, executors, administrators, sheriffs, clerks, and other jrablic officers on their bonds, actions on judgments and decrees of courts of record of this or any other State or Government, and all other cases not expressly provided for, within ten years after cause of action accrued.”
hTo reason exists for any strained construction of this statute that such suits may be entertained after such delay. There is no more sanctity about the demand of a distributee than is found in a vast number of the engagements arising from implied trusts, bailments, deposits, contracts, and judgments. What reason is there that, after a delay of ten years after right of action accrued — a delay not superinduced by fraud and concealment, -or accounted for by legal disability — an exception should exist in the law in favor of 'such a claim, when many equally as meritorious are barred in a much shorter time? This Court did not base any exception in favor of such a suit upon any superior merit in such a demand, but alone upon grounds which have since been removed by legislation.
From all of these considerations we are led to the conclusion that the suit of a distributee for an accounting, or for a devastavit, or to recover a distributive share, is barred, unless brought within ten years; and this bar is as applicable in equity as at law, and as applicable to suits against the administrator upon the personal trusts arising from his office as to a suit technically on his bond.
The two cases cited as decided since the Code — Taylor v. Walker, 1 Heis., 740, and Carr v. Lowe’s Executor, 7 Heis., 98 — did not involve the construction of the section here construed, and this statute
Some of the complainants sue with tlieir husbands as married women; but the bill is silent as to how long this disability has existed or when it begun. The proof is equally silent save as to Sarah, the wife of Wm. Hicks. She was born December, 1858, and was married in 1874. She was under the disability of infancy alone at the time the statute began to run, and the subsequent disability of coverture cannot be added to the original. She attained her majority in 1874, and is therefore barred. The burden is upon complainants to show that by reason of disabilities they are within the saving of the statute, which has otherwise barred their action. Shropshire v. Shropshire, 7 Yer., 165; McClung v. Sneed, 8 Head, 219; Chaney v. Moore, 1 Cold., 48.
The proof shows that Complainant H. L. W. Kerley, the youngest child of the decedent, was born February 11, 1858. He therefore reached his majority February 11, 1879. This suit was commenced in June, 1881. He has therefore filed his
The next assignment of error is that the Chancellor directed the Master, in stating an account with the administrator, to take as the basis of the account the inventory and account of sales, and to credit the account by such claims as were shown not to .have been lost by neglect, and by such disbursements as were properly made. This was error, in that the settlement made in 1869 in the County Court should have been made the basis of the account. -This settlement, though not final, was, so far as it went, prima facie evidence in favor of the administrator. Code, § 2305. Although the allegations of the bill were sufficient to authorize complainants to surcharge and 1 falsify the account, yet, upon a reference, the burden was upon the complainants to show by proof the incorrectness of the account they sought to surcharge and falsify by their bill. This decree of reference cast the burden upon the administrator to sustain his former settlement. The statute easts it, in all such cases, upon the attacking party. The decree of reference was likewise erroneous in directing
The debts thus paid were allowed the administrator in his County Court settlement. The record is silent as to the circumstances under which they were delayed in payment,' and equally so as to the showing made by the administrator, upon which he obtained these credits. Hnder these circumstances the settlement, after so great a lapse of time, ought not to be disturbed. The presumption
The decree compounding interest. against the administrator is erroneous upon the facts of this case. Rothing hut very culpable conduct will justify the compounding of interest, and no such culpability exists as will authorize any such punishment upon the facts as they appear in this record.
The Master’s report charged interest upon the entire sum with which the administrator was chargeable, but does not allow interest upon credits allowed him. This is gross error. His disbursements should have been credited on the principle of partial payments from the time they were made.
The bill will be dismissed as to all of the complainants save R. L. ~W. Kerley. All of the costs of this Court, and one-half the costs of the Chancery Court, will be paid by complainants, including R. L. W. Kerley, and the remainder will be paid by defendants, unless it should turn out that nothing is due the Complainant R. L. "W. Kerley, in which event he will pay the remainder of the costs. The case will be remanded for an account to be taken upon the proof in the record, to ascertain the amount, if any thing, due to the complainant, R. L. ~W. Kerley, upon 'the principles here determined.
I do not concur as to the running of the statute of limitations in favor of the administrator, as trustee of funds in his hands. Snoduíiass, J.