125 P. 834 | Or. | 1912
Lead Opinion
The plaintiff in this suit, assuming that the petition for the sale of the real estate in the probate proceeding was wholly insufficient to give the court jurisdiction to order the sale, alleges that the answer and cross-bill in the suit for specific performance and the proceedings thereunder were had by collusion and fraud between the executrix and Kern for the purpose of barring and cutting off any claim to the property by the minor; and the defendants, plead the proceeding under such answer and cross-bill as an adjudication of the title in their favor, and that they are innocent purchasers for a valuable consideration without notice of any collusion or fraud.
Without considering the question of collusion or frauci on the part of Kern and the executrix, we conclude that the decree in the suit for specific performance did not bar or estop the plaintiff from claiming title to the property, and this brings us to the consideration of the question of the sufficiency of the petition for the sale of the real estate and the validity of the order.
“That the said petition for the sale of real property was insufficient and did not contain the jurisdictional facts to give the court jurisdiction to base an order thereon directing the sale of the said minor’s interest in and to the said tract of 5% acres especially devised to him by said will. That said petition failed to allege or show any necessity for the sale of said property, but, on the contrary, showed that there was no necessity to sell said property. That said petition failed to show that there were any claims for the payment of which said property could be subjected under the terms of the will as above alleged, and said petition failed to set out said will or to petition for the sale of the said property, but the said petition asked only for an order of the court permitting the executrix to sell such portions of said real property belonging to said estate as she might deem necessary from time to time in order that she might sell such part or parts without any order of the court therefor and without any determination by the court that the necessity existed for the sale of said part or parts of said property.”
No facts are alleged, stating in what regard the petition failed to establish a necessity for the sale of the property, or that there were any claims for the payment of which such property could be subjected. If by this allegation plaintiff means that there was no' necessity shown for the sale of this tract, it being specially devised, that objection is fully answered by what has been already stated; there being funeral expenses, expenses of administration, and taxes for which this property was liable.
The final account shows that there was actually more
The sale of more of the property than was necessary to pay the debts for which it was liable, and the payment of a part of the proceeds of the sale upon debts chargeable to other property, are matters of procedure that do not
The decree is affirmed. Affirmed.
Rehearing
Decided December 31, 1912.
On Petition for Rehearing.
(128 Pac. 818.)
delivered the opinion of the court.
The substance of the contention for the plaintiff is that the county court, in ordering the sale of the premises in question, acted without having acquired jurisdiction. It is disclosed by the record that, when the petition for the order of sale was filed, the estate consisted of the following items of real property constituting its only assets: Seventy-two lots in Howe’s Addition to Portland; 2 lots in Wheatland Addition to Portland; and 5% acres of un-platted land adjoining Howe’s Addition. Different portions of the property in Howe’s Addition were subject to the lien of three several mortgages, leaving only blocks 3 and 4 in that addition unincumbered. The 5% acres and the two lots in Wheatland Addition were clear of liens of any kind.
“Section 1252. When the proceeds of the sale of personal property have been exhausted and the charges, expenses and claims specified in Section 1249 have not all been satisfied, the executor or administrator shall sell the real property of the estate or so much thereof as may be necessary for that purpose. If any of such real property have been specially devised, it shall be exempt from the operation of the order of sale in the same manner as personal property specially bequeathed.”
10. “Section 1253. The petition for the order of sale of real property shall state the amount of sales of personal property, the charges, expenses and claims still unsatisfied, so far as the same can be ascertained, a description of the real property of the estate, the condition and probable value of the different portions or lots thereof, the amount and nature of any liens thereon, the
The demands against the estate specified in Section 1249, L. O. L., are “funeral charges, expenses of administration and the claims, if any, against the estate.” Section 1254, L. O. L., requires that —
“Upon the filing of the petition a citation shall issue to the devisees and heirs therein mentioned, and to all others unknown, if any such there be, to appear at a term of court therein mentioned, not less than ten days after the service of such citation, to show cause, if any exist, why an order of sale should not be made as in the petition prayed for.”
In Section 1255, L. 0. L., the rule is made that,, “upon an heir or devisee, known and resident within this State, such citation shall be served and returned as a summons.”
Acting under these statutory provisions, the executrix who is at once the widow of the testator and the mother of his son, James Gladstone Howe, the plaintiff here, filed in the county court her petition for the sale of real property of the estate. That document recites her representative capacity; that the only personal property of the decedent which came to her knowledge, having been inventoried, was appraised as of no value; and that in pursuance of an order of the county court she had sold it to a person named for one dollar. Then follows this allegation :
“That the following is a statement of the charges, expenses and claims still unsatisfied against said estate so far as known and so far as the same can be ascertained, to wit: Claim of Edward Holman Undertaking Company for funeral expenses of decedent, $227.50; clerk’s fees to date, $10.75; advertising expenses, $2.50; attorney’s fees to date, $50.00; claim of Pacific Coast Abstract Company, $10.00; delinquent taxes for the year 1898, $89.25; and the mortgage indebtedness, amounting to $1,300, hereinafter described in the statement of liens on the real property of said estate.”
“That the names, ages, and residences of the devisees of said James Howe are as follows: Carrie Howe, your petitioner, the widow of said decedent, aged 40 years; James Gladstone Howe, the son of said James Howe, aged 5 years, and W. L. Wheatly, aged 26 years, all residing at Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon. That the only heirs of the said James Howe are the above Carrie Howe and James Gladstone Howe.”
The petition narrates ineffectual attempts of the testator in his lifetime to make sale of the realty and avers the belief of the petitioner that the property would command better prices if offered at private sale for part cash and the remainder in deferred interest-bearing payments. The petition concludes with the averment:
“That your petitioner is without means to support herself or her son, the said James Gladstone Howe; that it is necessary to sell a portion of the said property to provide for the payment of the funeral expenses of said decedent, expenses of administration, and debts of the decedent, and for support of petitioner and her son, the said James Gladstone Howe, and it is for the best interest of said estate that she be permitted to sell all or any part of the above-described real property of said estate at private sale, for the reason that the said petitioner cannot at this time, nor can any one, tell what part of the real property may be sold to- the best advantage of said estate and, by obtaining leave to sell at private sale any part of said real property of said estate, one proceeding only becomes sufficient to provide for all the needs of said estate and the cost and expense of further proceedings are thus saved.”
All the questions raised by plaintiff could have and should have been raised in answer to the citation or on appeal to the circuit court, or in other ways in the proceeding itself, or by some direct attack upon the resulting decision of the county court; but they avail him nothing when he assails the order of sale in this collateral litigation.
It is not necessary for us to decide whether or not the order of sale was improvidently made or extravagantly executed to the waste of the plaintiff’s patrimony. All we determine is that, on the face of the record as discussed before us, the county court had jurisdiction of the subject-matter and all of the persons interested, and being unfettered as to specific devises, because all the land was in one way or the other so devised, that tribunal had the power to decide rightly or wrongly, in either of which cases its decree is immune from this collateral attack.
We reiterate our former decision.
Affirmed : Rehearing Denied.