46 Minn. 526 | Minn. | 1891
It appears to have been settled beyond dispute in this country, as well as in England, that an executor or an administrator, having sufficient assets in his hands, is liable upon an implied promise to a third person who, as an act of duty or of necessity, has provided for the interment of a deceased person, if the funeral was conducted in a manner suitable to his station in life, with proper reference to the means of the estate, and the charges are fair and reasonable. Patterson v. Patterson, 59 N. Y. 574; Rappelyea v. Russell, 1 Daly, 214; Hapgood v. Houghton, 10 Pick. 154; Fitzhugh v. Fitzhugh, 11 Grat. 300; Rogers v. Price, 3 Younge & J. 28; Tugwell v. Heyman, 3 Camp. 298; Corner v. Shew, 3 Mees. & W. 350. And we think this view of the law is very clearly indicated in McNally v. Weld, 30 Minn. 209, (14 N. W. Rep. 895.) An unsuccessful effort has been made on several occasions to have the courts distinguish and discriminate between executors and administrators in respect to this rule, by limiting its application to the first-mentioned class of representatives. Valid reasons for the adoption of the doctrine may be found amply stated and thoroughly discussed in nearly all of the cases cited in support of it, and need not be restated or again considered at this time. They are quite as relevant and cogent when the representative of the estate is an administrator as when he happens to be an executor. The grounds for the rule are as pertinent and forceful in the one ease as in the other.
It is urged by the appellant that the claim in question should have been presented to the judge of probate for allowance under the provisions of Gen. St. 1878, c. 53; but a clear distinction has always existed, and has not been obliterated by the statute of this state, between the debts of the decedent and those incurred by the personal
It was not incumbent upon the respondent to submit his bill for undertaker’s services to the probate court, as a claim and demand “against the deceased.” While sufficient assets belonging to the estate were in appellant’s hands as administrator, and awaiting distribution, the bill in question, concededly just ar.d reasonable, was presented to it by a friend of the deceased, who, in connection with a brother of the dead man,, had caused the services to be rendered by respondent. The appellant’s liability then became fixed, and can only be discharged by payment of the amount.
Order affirmed.