This is a bill, by the administrator with the will annexed of the estate of Charles W. Holden, for an accounting in respect to various transactions betweеn the plaintiff’s testator and the defendant Fogg. The other defendants are only stakeholders. The case was sent to a master under the usuаl rule to hear the parties and report his findings with such facts and questions of law as either party might request. The plaintiff filed exceptions to thе master’s report. A final decree was entered in the defendant Fogg’s favor by which the plaintiff’s exceptions were overruled and the rеport was confirmed. The plaintiff appealed from this decree. He also appealed from the overruling of motions, made by him after the report was filed, that the master be ordered to report certain portions of the evidence, and that the repоrt be recommitted to the master with directions to report upon certain matters specified in the motion for recommittal.
If the motiоns thus made and overruled did not relate to matters entirely within the discretion of the judge who heard them, there is, nevertheless, nothing to show that the motions were wrongly overruled as matter of law. Moore v. Dick,
The plaintiff was apparently content to go to a hearing before the master under thе rule as it was issued.
Neither do we see anything erronеous in the action of the judge in hearing the motions for recommittal and a report of the evidence at the same time with the motion fоr the confirmation of the master’s report. The order in which the business before it should be dealt with was entirely in the discretion of the court.
This brings us to the exceptions to the report. The sixth exception has been waived. The remaining exceptions relate-to the Central Bank note so called, to the alleged losses of the C. W. Holden Insurance Agency, in which Holden and Fogg were equal partners, one half of whiсh it is contended should have been allowed the Holden estate, and to a quarter interest in Holden, Eddy and Company, the value of which the рlaintiff contends should have been allowed by the master to Holden’s estate.
The evidence not having been reported the master’s findings in rеgard to matters of fact cannot be revised, and the only question before us is therefore whether there is anything in the facts found by the master which is inconsistent with or requires a conclusion different from that expressed in the decree. Cleveland v. Hampden Savings Bank,
1. The Central Bank note matter was briefly as follows: The defendant Fogg gave to the Central Bank his note for $7,500 and, as collateral security therefor, a note for $5,000 given to him by Eddy and a note for $2,510 given to him by Holden which Fogg indorsed waiving demand and notice, and for the payment of which, as Fogg notified the bank and as the master has found, he held сollateral security from Holden. The bank passed into the hands of a receiver who sued both Fogg and Holden on these notes. In the aсtion against Fogg there was a finding in favor of the plaintiff for $1,417.16. Holden was defaulted in the action against him, and execution issued for
2. As to one half of the losses of the C. W. Holden Insurance Agency, which, it is contended by the plaintiff, should be allowed by the defendant, the master finds that if there was any such right of recovery it accrued on July 1, 1897, and therefore is barred by the statute of limitations. We think that the master was right and we agree with him not only in regard to the statute of limitations but also in his construction of the partnership .agreement. The agreement wаs entered into on May 10, 1897, and the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on June 21,1897, and Holden transferred all his interest in the firm to Fogg. Holden’s right to an accounting and settlement accrued upon the dissolution of the firm. Farnam v. Brooks,
3. The claim of the plaintiff to a quarter interest in Holden, Eddy and Company which he contends that the master should have allowed him, relates to a quarter interest in that concеrn which was sold by Fogg to Eddy. The plaintiff contends, that it really belonged to Holden, and that it was held by Fogg in trust or as collateral for Holden’s indebtedness to him. The master has however found that it belonged to Fogg absolutely, and that he did not hold it in trust or as collateral, and there is nothing to control these findings.
The result is that the decree must be affirmed.
So ordered.
Notes
The order of reference was made on April 15, 1905. The master was ordered “to proceed forthwith to hear the parties and their evidence and report his findings to the court on or before the first Monday of May next, together with such facts and questions of law as either party may request.”
