126 Minn. 445 | Minn. | 1914
Henry Maetzold, a resident of Goodhue county, died intestate-April 15, 1910. May 23, 1910, Dora Maetzold was appointed administratrix and qualified as such.. She gave a bond in the sum of’ $10,000 with the defendant United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. as surety, conditioned upon her faithful discharge of all the duties;
The complaint set forth the facts substantially as stated above. Defendant Dora Maetzold did not answer. The answer of defendant guaranty company admitted the execution of the bond, the resignation of the administratrix, and the appointment of plaintiff in her stead. Por a “cross-bill, further answer and for affirmative relief herein,” the defendant alleged that it was not a party to the proceedings resulting in the judgment in the probate court; that Dora Maetzold had no fund or money in her hands belonging to the estate at the time the judgment was rendered; that plaintiff, Dora. Maetzold, and some of the creditors of the estate, “eollusively and
On the trial plaintiff proved step by step the proceedings in the probate court leading up to the order adjusting, the final account of the administratrix and directing the payment by her to plaintiff of the balance found due the estate. It appeared that these proceedings were regular and that the hearing was upon notice duly given. The order or judgment was received in evidence over the objections ■of defendant, the demand upon the administratrix for the moneys was shown, and the authority to bring the action was proved. Defendant Guaranty Co. then made offers to prove that the administratrix was not legally liable for the item for merchandise purchased, ■or for the amount she was charged for negligence or waste in not renewing the lease of the store in which the deceased had in his lifetime carried on business. The offers were numerous and full of reasons why the items were erroneously charged to Dora Maetzold by the probate court, but there was no offer to prove that the court’s action was the result of fraud or collusion. The trial court sus
1. There is no doubt that the failure of the administratrix to pay over to her successor the amount found due from her to the estate by the order of the probate court settling her account, was a breach of the bond for which the surety is liable unless that order can be impeached, set aside or modified in this action. The chief contention of the surety is that the trial court was wrong in holding that the order or judgment of the probate court could not be attacked in this action by a showing of the facts that 'defendant offered to prove. If the court was right in this position, it practically determines this appeal. The question arises both by the rulings sustaining objections to defendant’s offers to prove, and by the direction of the verdict.
2. Clearly the probate court had exclusive jurisdiction of the matter of settling the account of the administratrix, and also to correct any errors in its order, or to set it aside for mistake or fraud. The district court had no jurisdiction, except on appeal. This is too well settled to require a citation of authorities.
3. From the nature of the obligation entered into by a surety on an administrator’s bond, he is, though not a party to the proceeding, bound and concluded by a judgment against his principal, in the absence of fraud or collusion; the judgment against the principal is res adjudicata and cannot be collaterally attacked in an action on the bond. See note in 40 L.R.A.(N.S.) 708. This principle is well settled, and has been applied by this court. Jacobson v. Anderson, 72 Minn. 426, 75 N. W. 607; Pioneer S. & L. Co. v. Bartsch, 51 Minn. 474, 53 N. W. 764, 38 Am. St. 511; Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Schurmeier, 125 Minn. 368, 147 N. W. 246.
5. But whether this be true or not, it is clear under well settled principles that this order or decree of the probate court cannot be-attacked in the district court, in defense to an action on the bond,, simply on the ground that the administratrix was charged with, items that she may not have been legally liable for. We do not decide that the order could be attacked in this case for a fraudulent: representation made by creditors to the court, but it is plain that the offers of evidence fell far short of offers to show that the decree-was procured by fraud or collusion. If everything offered to be proved were true, it would only show that the probate court may not have had all the .facts before it, or may have misunderstood the law,; when it charged- the administratrix with waste in failing to take a. new lease of the store! 'This was not a matter of the jurisdiction, of the' probate court, nor a question of its power. If it decided wrongly that the administratrix was liable, it was merely an error. And the same is true as to the offers to show that the item of $1,963.-20, with which the court charged the administratrix, was incurred for thé purchase of merchandise for the retail business, and that plaintiff in fact paid only a part of it. There is no question here of jurisdiction or power of the court. Its determination to charge this item, to the administratrix may have been based upon imperfect knowledge of the true facts, or upon an error as to the law, but this of' course does not make its judgment liable to collateral attack. What:
It ought to be unnecessary to point out that the rule that, as against anyone but the parties and their privies, a judgment is evidence only of the fact of its recovery, has no application where a surety had contracted to be liable for failure of the principal to obey any judgment or order that the court may make. So long as the judgment fixing the liability of the principal is one which the court has jurisdiction to render, and is not appealed from, it binds the surety as well as the principal, at least in the absence of fraud or collusion.
6. There is no force in the final contention of defendant that, because the answer pleaded fraud and asked equitable relief, the case wag not triable by a jury, and the court should have made findings instead of directing a verdict. The action was at law, and its character was not changed by the answer. In any event there could not be a reversal for this cause, as it appears conclusively that plaintiff was entitled to recover as a matter of law.
Our conclusions are in accord with the views of the trial court. The objections to the offers made by defendant were properly sustained and the verdict was properly directed.
Judgment and order affirmed.