172 Ga. 261 | Ga. | 1931
W. Bruce Nichols, of Dooly County, Georgia, died intestate on November 19, 1928. At the time of his death he owned 100 shares of the capital stock of Citizens Bank of Fort Valley, of the par value of $100 per share. Fifty shares of the stock were acquired by him on December 16, 1909, and fifty shares on June 25, 1920. This bank suspended business on November 27, 1928. It had operated continuously since its organization about the year 1909. In January, 1929, A. C. Pate and A. R. Ware duly qualified as administrators of the estate of Nichols. On February 7, 1929 A. B. Mobley, as superintendent of banks in charge of the Citizens Bank of Fort Valley in liquidation, issued an execution for $10,000 against the administrators of Nichols, the execution being based upon an assessment of $100 per share on the 100 shares of the capital stock owned by Nichols. The Chase National Bank of New York is a creditor of Nichols, holding promissory notes upon which there was due (as admitted by the administrators of the estate and all parties to this case), on February 18, 1930, a balance $6,404.30 principal, and $181.90 interest. The administrators reduced the assets of Nichols5 estate to cash, and creditors were demanding payment of their claims. The funds in the hands of the administrators were insufficient to pay creditors in full. The Chase National Bank and other creditors holding promissory notes against the estate were demanding payment in full of their claims as having priority over the stock execution in favor of Mobley, superintendent of banks; and the superintendent was claiming that he was entitled to full payment of the execution as a prior lien upon all of the assets of the estate. In this situation the administrators brought a petition for direction, in which the facts were fully recited. Demurrer and answer were filed by the superintendent of banks. At the hearing all of the creditors were represented, and they agreed that the judge should pass upon all questions of law and fact and pass a final order distributing the funds in the hands of the administrators. The demurrer was overruled, and a decree was entered distributing the funds in the hands of the administrators, and holding that creditors of the estate of Nichols who held promissory notes of his were entitled to full payment of their demands, and that the claim represented by Mobley, superintendent of banks, is an unsecured claim, unliquidated, and taking rank as an open account only.
The court did not err in overruling the demurrer to the entire petition. Section 4597 of the Civil Code is as follows: “In cases of difficulty in construing wills, or in distributing estates, in ascertaining the persons entitled, or in determining under what law property should be divided, the representative may ask the' direction of the court, but not on imaginary difficulties or from excessive caution.” In view of the facts alleged in the petition, the court properly refused to dismiss it and retained it for the purpose of giving direction.
The third ground of the demurrer filed by the superintendent of banks is as follows: “Because said paragraphs set out no cause of action at law or in equity against this defendant, and because, under the law applicable to the facts pleaded in said paragraphs, this defendant has a lien on the assets of said estate and is entitled to be paid in full before the other creditors named in said petition are paid anything on their demands against said estate.” This ground of demurrer, in so far as it seeks to have eliminated from the petition paragraphs 15 to 18, inclusive, was properly overruled; for these paragraphs last referred to are a part of the statement of the situation of the estate of the decedent, and the claims made against it, which authorizes the petitioners to pray for and have the direction of the court in the distribution of the estate. But the demurrer should have been sustained as to grounds 19 and 20, which' are as follows: “ (19) Petitioner further shows to the court that the said A. B. Mobley, Superintendent of Banks of the
There is no occasion here to go into a discussion of the wisdom of the law passed by the legislature; we have sought only to ascertain its meaning and to give it the proper construction. The execution issued by the superintendent of banks, being uncontested by affidavit of illegality and having become final process, was properly put upon the execution docket, and the enforcement of it was not postponed to the expiration of twelve months from the appointment of the administrators of Nichols, the decedent. Under section 2279(b), a deceased stockholder is liable “in like manner and
'The part of the act of the General Assembly entitled “An act to regulate banking in the State of Georgia,” etc., approved August 16, 1919 (Acts 1919, p. 135), which provides that the estates and funds in the hands of administrators of deceased stockholders “shall be liable in like manner and to the same extent as . . the intestate would be, if living and competent to act and hold the stock in his own name,” is not void as repugnant to article 3, section 7, paragraph 8, of the constitution of the State, wherein it is provided that “No law or ordinance shall pass which refers to more than one subject-matter, or contains matter different from what is expressed in .the title thereof.” Nor is that part of the banking law last referred to in contravention of article 3, section 7, paragraph 17, of the constitution, which declares that “No law, or section of the Code, shall be amended or repealed by mere reference to its title, or to the number of the section of the Code, but the amending or repealing act shall distinctly describe the law to be amended or repealed, as well as the alteration to be made.” Upon the main bill of exceptions the
Judgment is reversed in part and affirmed in part; upon the cross-hill affvrmed.