19 Kan. 67 | Kan. | 1877
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The question is presented by the record, whether the facts set forth in the petition constituted a cause of action against the defendants in error. In other words, did the court below commit error in refusing to assume jurisdiction of the cause ?
While it is true that the statute prescribing the ‘ , . ,, jurisdiction ot the district courts is certainly broad enough to give to such courts full chancery and common-law jurisdiction, (and the subject of this action has always been held a subject of chancery jurisdiction,) and while an estate by descent renders the heir liable for the debts of his ancestor to the value of the property descended, still, it has also been equally well settled, that where the property sought to be reached constitutes, as here, assets of a deceased debtor which have already been subjected to administration and distribution under a special tribunal having jurisdiction of the matter, the rule requiring the existence of special circumstances bringing the case under some recognized head of equity should not only be insisted upon with rigor, but some satisfactory excuse should be given for the failure of the ci’editor to collect his claim in the mode prescribed by law, before final settlement and discharge of the administrator. The question becomes one, not of jurisdiction, but of the exercise of such authority. Public Works v. Columbia College, 17 Wall. 521; Williams v. Gibbes, 17 How. 239, 255; Titterington v. Hooker, 58 Mo. 593; Littleton v. Addington, 59 Mo. 275. No valid excuse is here presented for the delay, or rather, non-action, of the creditor after the exhibition of his demand to the administrator. Where claims are exhibited and the estate is solvent, save in exceptional cases, the statute seems to intend that the administration shall continue for three years; and before any final settlement can be had, a notice thereof must be published by the administrator or executor, as the case may be, for' four , . . . _, weeks in some newspaper, so that the creditors and all others interested shall be informed as to the time the final settlement is to be made, and such final settlement is a judicial determination, binding upon all the property of the estate, and upon any interest in such property that any person may have as heir, devisee, or legatee. Shoemaker v. Brown, 10 Kas. 383. Such final settlement, when not completed till
We conclude that a creditor of an estate in the hands of an administrator or executor, must not only exhibit his demand against such estate within the three years prescribed by statute, to obtain any recovery thereon, but he must do something more, and that is, before the final accounting and discharge of the administrator after three years have expired from the date of the granting of letters, he must have his demand allowed or established, and paid from the assets of the estate; and that he cannot merely exhibit his claim to the administrator, and then be passive, and permit the three years of administration to expire, and after a final accounting has been had, the administration closed, and the administrator discharged, seek in the district court to subject the lands descended to the heirs to the payment of his claims. Under such circumstances, the lands ought not thus to be pursued, and the heirs ought not in this way to be harassed; and above all, the titles to lands derived from persons who are dead should not thus be the subject of contest, after the estate has been judicially settled, and the records of the proper tribunal show no allowed or established claims unpaid, and
The district court did not err in refusing to exercise its jurisdiction in the case, and therefore the judgment will be affirmed.