15 Cal. 2d 166 | Cal. | 1940
This appeal is from an order settling the first and final account and report of the administrator of the decedent’s estate. It is presented on a bill of exceptions.
On April 18,1919, Charles T. Chandler was duly appointed the guardian of the estate of Anna Baxter, an incompetent person. On March 2, 1922, Anna Baxter died. Chandler was then, on May 8, 1922, duly appointed the administrator of her estate. In June, 1922, he filed his third and final account in the guardianship proceeding, showing a balance in his possession as guardian of $31,295.25. That account was approved and settled by the court in the same month, and Chandler was ordered to deliver all property in his hands as guardian of the incompetent to himself as administrator. As such administrator he filed an inventory in the decedent’s estate showing the sum of $31,700.25 as the total appraised value of all property which had come into his possession. On May 11, 1925, Chandler as administrator filed his first and final account and report, and a petition for distribution. That account showed receipts of $32,279.81, and disbursements of $31,001.78, which included partial distribution to three surviving brothers of the decedent, Joseph W. Hale, Charles N. Hale and Thomas H. Hale, leaving a balance on hand of $1278.03. At the hearing, pursuant to stipulation dated May 29, 1925, between the attorney for
No further proceedings were taken in said estate until the filing of the amended final account hereinafter mentioned. On May 24, 1935, Charles T. Chandler died, and on June 12, 1937, P. L. Richardson was appointed administrator de bonis non of the estate of Anna Baxter, deceased. On September 10, 1937, R. P. Smith was appointed administrator of Chandler’s estate. On March 5, 1938, Smith, assuming to act on behalf of the estate of Charles T. Chandler, filed in the matter of the estate of Anna Baxter, deceased, an account designated “Amended Pinal Account” of Chandler’s administration of the Baxter estate. In that amended final account Smith alleged that Chandler as guardian of the estate of Anna Baxter, an incompetent person, had received funds or property in excess of the amount reported by Chandler as such guardian to the extent of $17,901.53, and that Chandler at the time of his death was therefore indebted to the estate of Anna Baxter, deceased, in said amount. Royal Indemnity Company, respondent herein, filed objections to said amended final account in the form of a denial of the allegations thereof. On the hearing of said account and the first and final account previously filed by Chandler which had been put off calendar, and the objections thereto, the court found receipts totaling $32,279.81, and disbursements pursuant to appropriate orders in the sum of $31,655.98. It concluded that Chandler, as administrator, was chargeable with the difference between those sums, or $623.83, with interest on a portion thereof compounded annually.
Richardson, as administrator of the estate of Anna Baxter, deceased, Joseph W. Hale, as heir at law, and R. P. Smith, as administrator of Chandler's estate, appealed from the order.
The bill of exceptions shows that on the hearing herein the court declined to receive in evidence the original and supplemental inventories and the first and second annual accounts and reports of Chandler as guardian, and the ninth annual account of James R. Baxter who preceded Chandler as guardian of the incompetent; and that the court based its findings and order upon the third annual account of Chandler as guardian, the order settling the same, the first and final account of Chandler as administrator, and the testimony of F. L. Richardson that all vouchers showing the disbursement of the funds had been lost or destroyed.
It is the theory of the appellants that the offered evidence showed that certain moneys or securities came into the possession of Chandler as guardian which were not accounted for by him in the guardianship proceeding, but which subsequently continued in his possession as administrator; and that the orders settling the accounts of the guardian as to such items as were claimed to have been unaccounted for or omitted were not final or conclusive herein. Reliance is placed upon Estate of Clary, 203 Cal. 335 [264 Pac. 242], and similar decisions and authorities to the effect that the settlement of accounts and reports is not conclusive as to any items which were not included in and actually passed upon by the court. It is contended that the items alleged in the amended final account filed by Smith were of that character, and that the probate court in this proceeding should have received the rejected evidence for the purpose of discovering such omitted items of property or money which had come into Chandler’s possession as guardian and remained unaccounted for by him.
We conclude that the court’s ruling was proper. If the amended final account, filed pursuant to section 932 of the Probate Code, and the evidence introduced or offered in support thereof, had indicated that certain moneys or property belonging to the Baxter estate were actually in the possession of the representative of Chandler’s’estate, the probate court would undoubtedly have had jurisdiction, notwithstanding the settlement of any prior account, to receive the report of the administrator to that effect, and to make any appropriate order of settlement and distribution. But
All of the appellants herein are represented by F. L. Richardson as attorney or in propria persona. F. L. Richardson also represented Chandler during his administrations as guardian and as administrator of the Baxter estate. He testified that he had a contingent fee contract of employment whereby Joseph W. Hale agreed to pay him a fee equal to fifty per cent of any money or property recovered for Hale from the Baxter estate. It therefore appears that parties whose interests normally would be opposed are shown united in a joint effort to establish such defalcation on the part of Chandler; and that the only opposing party and respondent herein is the surety on Chandler’s bond. No evidence was produced or offered to indicate that Chandler at any time as administrator received any funds or property in addition to that accounted for by him as such administrator and as found by the court on the hearing herein. In that connection the appellants are content to rely upon inferences to be drawn from the accounts offered in evidence and filed by Chandler in the guardianship proceeding, and their contention that any unaccounted for funds or property received by him as guardian are presumed to continue in his possession in his new capacity as administrator. They point to the following apparent discrepancies appearing in the accounts offered in evidence and rejected by the probate court: The last account of James R. Baxter, filed in February, 1919, and approved by order of court on March 7, 1919, showed a balance of cash in banks belonging to the estate on the 15th day of November, 1918, in the sum of $47,265.33. The original inventory and first account of Chandler as guardian
However, the rule relied on by the appellants did not authorize the court in the present proceeding to investigate the accounts filed by Chandler in the prior guardianship proceeding, approved and settled by an order of the court which
There is no merit in the contention that the court should have allowed interest on the whole of the amount found to be due from Chandler as administrator.
The order is affirmed.
Curtis, J., Carter, J., Waste, C. J., Gibson, J., and Edmonds, J., concurred.
Rehearing denied.