25 A.2d 706 | Pa. | 1942
Walter S. Rae died in November, 1939. Letters testamentary were granted to his son and daughter, Walter S. Rae, Jr., and Mrs. Stiening. On March 20, 1940, the son's resignation as co-executor was accepted. When the executrix's account came on for audit in 1941, a claim by B. B. Byers, now the appellant, was presented and rejected by the court.
The rule is well established that a claim, which might have been presented to a party in his lifetime, will be subjected to most careful scrutiny, if presented to his personal representative; the terms of the contract must be clear, certain and definite; parol evidence offered to support it must be direct and positive: Schwoyer's Estate,
Appellant's difficulty is two-fold: (1) the evidence, such as it was, fell far short of complying with the rule stated above;* (2) the court could place very little reliance on the testimony of the resigned executor, who was the only witness to prove the alleged agreement. Apart from the failure to show its terms by evidence satisfying the rule, Mr. Rae was contradicted in essentials by Mr. Bostwick and Mr. Glock. Before resigning as executor, he pressed for collection of a debt due the estate by the claimant, Byers, without then suggesting that Byers had a claim against the estate. Mr. Glock, who represented other creditors of the estate, testified that Mr. Rae, in a conference considering creditors' claims, said, ". . . unless we 'played ball' with him he would not help us establish any of the claims of the estate or help defeat claims against the estate." Mr. Rae did not contradict that statement.
Order affirmed at appellant's costs.