43 S.C. 66 | S.C. | 1895
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Grandison Williams, appellant, was appointed administrator de bonis non of the estate of Henry Pratt, deceased, in the Court of Ordinary for York County on the 21st January, 1868. He then executed to the ordinary his bond as such administrator in the penal sum of $38,000, in the required form, with W. Holmes Hardin and Jesse Williams as sureties thereto. In 1891 the respondents, Eliza Edwards and Joseph Pratt, children of Henry Pratt, deceased, brought action against the said Grandison Williams, as such administrator, in the Court of Probate for York County, for an accounting, and demanding judgment for their respective shares of the estate of their father. By the decree rendered in that action, on the first day of August, 1891, it was determined that such share of Eliza Edwards was $10,692.74, and that of Joseph Pratt was $8,292.74, and that Grandison Williams, as such administrator, should pay them accordingly. Jesse Williams, surety as aforesaid, has died, and the appellants, Newton Williams and L. T. Grant, are his qualified executors.
This action is brought by Wm. H. McCorkle, as probate judge and successor to the ordinary, and by Eliza Edwards and Joseph Pratt, as the heirs at law of Henry Pratt, deceased. The complaint alleges, as the single breach of the said bond, that the said Grandison Williams, as administrator, and his codefendants, have failed to pay the said Eliza Edwards and Joseph Pratt the aforesaid amounts, adjudged to be paid them by the decree of the Probate Court for York County. It demands judgment for the whole penalty of the bond. The defendants first demurred to the complaint on the ground that it ■does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action as
It is true, the interest of the probate judge is only in a representative character; nevertheless, it is such an interest as the law recognizes, and is sufficient to sustain such action when he sues alone. The cause of action of the probate judge and of the distributees is not several in its nature, but one and the same. If the probate judge had sued alone, and recovered judgment on the bond, the distributees would have been barred from bringing a second action thereon; and viceversa, if the distributees had recovered judgment on the bond, this would have barred an action thereon by the probate judge. On the subject of joinder of parties, see the well considered opinion of Mr. Justice Haskell, speaking for the court in the case of Trimmier v. Thomson, 10 S. C., 164.
It is the judgment of this court, that the orders appealed from be sustained, the appeal dismissed, and the cause remanded to the Circuit Court for Chester County.