13 Tex. 189 | Tex. | 1854
The prominent facts in this case are that Joel Lakey departed this life in 1837, leaving a will, which on the petition of Miller Francis and wife, the plaintiffs
John Hall, the defendant, was not appointed the administrator of the estate of Joel Lakey • and when required by the Probate Court, in 1841, to account as such, he denied that there was such an appointment, and if it in fact existed he tendered his resignation. In his acts he was sometimes styled as administrator, and sometimes as agent of the heirs of Joel Lakey. It appears that in 1838 and 1839 some of the heirs
It appeared that two of the absent heirs had received their portions and were fully satisfied: another absent heir was paid during the progress of the suit; and it was proven that all the heirs had received their shares of the land, and that they had not been heard to complain. The amounts paid were large, and by the estimate of defendant’s counsel exceeded even the aggregate of the sales. In 1849, letters of adminisistration de ionis non were granted to the plaintiffs, and this suit was subsequently prosecutéd.
It will be unnecessary to notice in detail the pleadings, or specially, the instructions given or refused, or other matters occurring during the progress of the trial. The allegations of the plaintiffs sought to charge the defendant on various grounds, sometimes charging him as administrator and at others as trustee, &c., and the defence as often varied its face and shape to meet the supposed exigencies of the case.
Of the twenty-one instructions asked by plaintiffs, none but but two were refused; and of the fourteen sought by defendant, all but one were given. The facts were fairly and fully before the jury, the law was dealt out to them in profusion, and a verdict was found for defendant.
The appellants have assigned eight grounds of error, which it will not be necessary to consider separately or examine minutely.
There are some prominent facts in the cause that are decisive of the merits of this controversy. In the first place, it
The persons having the exclusive right to the succession had agreed to its distribution, and the arrangement had received judicial assent and sanction; what more remained than to carry this agreement into specific execution, according to its terms ? And if default was made by the agent, who had the right to complain of such default, and to seek redress for the wrong ? Not the estate generally, not the succession as a fictitious being, but the heirs who had accepted and taken possession for themselves, and who had voluntarily nominated and appointed their agent.
The succession was in effect closed by the act of the parties who alone had any interest.
In fact it was never opened for the purposes of general administration. There was no reason why it should. There were substantially no debts; and whether there were or not, the heirs under the then existing laws had the right, either expressly or by implication, to accept the estate, becoming responsible for the debts; and especially if there were no debts, had they the right to accept and distribute immediately without the incumbrance of an administration, the only object of which under such circumstances would be to prepare the estate for distribution. This was the course pursued by the heirs in
The heirs were competent to the assertion of their own rights. They needed not the aid of an administrator. There was no legal necessity for his appointment; nor under the circumstances was there any authority in law for disturbing the heirs in possession, or wresting the property from the control and disposal of those to whom it belonged and who had asserted their rights as owners.
The grant of administration is de bonis non, or upon the effects still unadministered. What is the effect of such grant ? if it be conceded that an administration was an essential prerequisite to the passing of the property to the heirs, and if the defendant had not in fact been administrator, or the acts done were not in due course of administration, it would open the whole succession, and all the proceedings to re-examination and adjustment. But upon no principle could such results be tolerated. It could not be permitted that heirs should be ousted or disturbed after ten or eleven years’ possession, for the mere purpose of putting an estate through the course of an administration, especially where it would result in nothing but injury to all in interest; where its only effect would be to wrest property from its owners to their vexation and annoyance, and return it again burthened with all the charges of its transmutation. But if the agreement, and the acts of the heirs and their agent, the defendant, be regarded as acts of administration, then what remained undone of which these plaintiffs as general administrators could complain? The only parties really in interest were the heirs, who had years before agreed
But if all the defences arising on purely legal grounds, from acceptance by the heirs, the lapse of time, and the nullity of the grant of administration, had been waived; and if it had been admitted that the plaintiffs in their capacity as administrators de bonis non, could maintain this action; yet it appears from the defendant’s vouchers which were fortunately preserved through the casualties of time, that he had paid large sums of money in satisfaction of the claims of the heirs and for other necessary purposes, and in fact that he had so discharged his trust as to leave no reasonable ground of complaint. His payments and expenditures together with the amount due his wife as one of the heirs, were nearly if not fully equivalent to the proceeds of the sales, and doubtless it was this view of the facts which induced the jury to bring in their verdict for the defendant.
Judgment affirmed.