49 Vt. 380 | Vt. | 1877
By the pleadings and facts found by the County Court, two questions are raised. 1. Whether a creditor who has had disallowed by the commissioners a portion of one of several claims or items of a claim against an estate, can, on the return of the report of the comimissoners to the Probate Court, by an appeal, carry to the County Court the item, the whole or a portion of which has been disallowed, and leave the allowance of the other items remaining in the Probate Court a valid judgment or judgments against the estate ? or does the appeal vacate the entire action of the commissioners and the Probate Court in regard to the matters submitted between such creditor and the estate ? 2. Whether, in case the administrator has sufficient funds to pay all the debts allowed agqinst the estate, and the time limited by the Probate Court for their payment has elapsed, it is necessary for the creditor who has an allowance in his favor to obtain a'specific order in the Probate Court for the payment of such allowance before he cau maintain a suit against the administrator on his official bond for the recovery of the sum allowed ?
I. Section 12, c. 53, of the Gen. Sts gives to commissioners appointed by the Probate Court, “ power to try and decide upon all claims which by law survive against or in favor of executors or administrators, except claims for the possession of or title to real estate.” Their powers could not be well stated in more general and comprehensive terms. No pleadings are necessary in the trial of these claims. There is no such thing as a misjoinder of actions in such trials, but each item or specification of claim is to be passed upon without regard to its nature. By section nine it is made the duty of the executor or administrator, when a creditor has presented a claim against the estate, to “ exhibit the claims of the deceased in set-off to the claims of the creditor,” and it is provided that the commissioners shall ascertain and allow the balance' against or in favor of the estate as they shall find the same to be.” By section eleven it is enacted, “The commissioners shall make report of their doing to the Probate F0urt embracing-lists of all claims presented or exhibited in set-off, and stating
II. Under our system of jurisprudence, the Probate Court is a tribunal created almost entirely for the settlement of estates. Its jurisdiction of such settlements is complete; and common-law or equity courts do not interfere, except to aid that court. Hence it has been universally "held that a party cannot resort to the common-law courts in matters touching the settlement of estates, until he has exhausted the power of the Probate Court to furnish him relief. In estates represented insolvent, it has been uniformly held, and that by repeated decisions, that before a creditor having a claim allowed against an estate can pursue the administrator or executor individually or on his official bond, to secure payment of such claim, he must have procured a decree of the Probate Court in which the estate is being settled, ordering the payment of his claim or some portion of it. Probate Court v. Saxton, 17 Vt. 623; Bank of Orange County v. Kidder, 20 Vt. 519; Prolate Court v. Chapin, 31 Vt. 373 ; Prolate Court v. Kimball, 42 Vt. 320. Such is the express provision of the statute. Gen. Sts. c. 53, ss. 38, 42.
For both of these reasons we think the pro-forma judgment of the County Court for the prosecutor was erroneous.
Judgment reversed, and judgment’ for defendant to recover costs.