58 A.2d 1 | Conn. | 1948
The issue presented by this appeal is whether a legatee of a specific sum to whom the principal of the legacy has been paid may thereafter recover interest upon it. The executors of the testator's estate filed an account in which no allowance was made for the payment of the interest. The Probate Court allowed the account except for the omission of the interest. A residuary legatee and one of the executors appealed from that decree to the Superior Court and it sustained the appeal. It held that the Probate Court was right in deciding that interest was payable on the legacy but was in error as to the method of calculating the amount due. From that judgment the residuary legatee and the executor have appealed.
The finding, without correction, states all the facts necessary for the decision of the appeal and they may be briefly summarized. The testator, Charles P. White, bequeathed to his wife $26,500, with a provision that if this sum did not equal "her statutory share" in the estate she was to receive enough more to equal that share, and with a statement that she was to receive as absolute owner either that share or the sum of $26,500, whichever should be the larger. The will contained a provision disposing of the testator's residuary estate. It was conceded *369 at the trial that the wife's statutory share would be less than $26,500. The testator's wife died about eight months after his death, and the executors of her estate are the present claimants of the interest. On June 4, 1945, the executors of Mr. White's estate paid to the executors of his wife's estate $13,000 in partial liquidation of the legacy. On July 19, 1946, the former sent to the attorneys for the latter a check for $13,500, the balance due on the principal sum of the legacy given to her. The payment was not tendered as in full discharge of the legacy. The attorneys acknowledged receipt of the check but stated that they did not know the amount of Mr. White's net estate and that, as soon as it appeared upon a proper accounting that the sum of $26,500 exceeded one-third of the estate, they would send a proper release; and then they added this sentence: "This commitment to deliver the release above mentioned is conditioned upon payment of any interest which may be legally due to the extent that such interest has not been waived in whole or in part."
Interest is allowed as damages for the wrongful detention of money; Selleck v. French,
It is, however, an established rule of law, subject to certain exceptions not pertinent to our inquiry, that interest will be added to general legacies for the period from one year after the death of the testator until they are paid. Webb v. Lines,
The basis for the allowance of interest is, then, a presumption of law that the legacies might have been paid at the expiration of one year, and consequently interest should run from that time. Wheeler v. Ruthven,
In Canfield v. Eleventh School District,
As the additional amount recoverable on legacies 15 in reality no different in its nature from interest ordinarily recoverable for delay in the parent of an obligation, it follows that where the principal amount of the legacy has been paid there can be no recovery of the interest. Cases cited to us which hold that the interest is not allowed as a penalty because of neglect by the executor of the estate to pay the legacy when due are not inconsistent with this conclusion; indeed, that the charge has no relation to such a neglect follows from the basis upon which the rule rests. See Kent Dunham v. Dunham,
There is error, the judgment is set aside and the case is remanded with direction to sustain the appeal