75 Vt. 243 | Vt. | 1903
The bill alleges in, substance that the defendant, as guardian of the orator, received certain property decreed to the orator as legatee; that among this property were certificates representing shares of the capital stock and certain debenture bonds of various corporations located without the State; that when the defendant received these shares and bonds they were worth, and could readily have been sold for, more than the par value thereof; that the capital stock and debenture bonds of a foreign corporation are not a proper selection for the investment of trust funds, and that it was the duty of the defendant to refuse this property, or, having received it, to be diligent in disposing of it; that the defendant remained the orator’s guardian until the 28th day of July, 1894, when the orator became of age; that on the 30th day of July, 1894, the defendant presented to the Probate Court a final account of his guardianship, in which said shares and bonds were returned as assets in his hands; that on the same day the orator endorsed on said account a certificate that he had examined and approved it, and that on the first day of August following the Probate Court accepted and allowed said account, and ordered that said securities be delivered to the orator; that the securities were transferred to the orator immediately thereafter, and that most of them were then wholly valueless.
The bill complains that it was the duty of the defendant, in settling his accounts with the orator, to disclose to him any facts that might be necessary to inform him as to the full extent of his legal rights and remedies, and to, refrain from any deception in obtaining the orator’s approval of his final ac
V. S. 2810, upon the construction given it by both parties, makes this final allowance conclusive between them after the lapse of four years. But independent of any statute, a decree of the Probate Court is conclusive as to all matters which appear from the records to have been adjudicated, except in proceedings brought directly to correct or annul it. Rix v. Smith, 8 Vt. 365. An accounting like the one in question is to
But the orator says his bill proceeds upon the theory that it would be inequitable to permit the defendant to set up the decree of the Pirábate Court as a defense to the accounting prayed for, for the reason that the defendant obtained the decree through fraud; and it is argued that the defendant is equitably estopped from pleading the decree. Conceding that the adjudication can' be thus put aside, this but brings us back to the question already considered. The claim, as here stated, stands upon the assertion that the decree was procured by fraud, and w'e have seen that the allegations that the orator’s approval of the account was so procured are not followed by averments sufficient to carry the effect of that approval into the decree. The allegations of the bill may all be true, and yet the account have been disposed of upon a full hearing of the questions now presented, and irrespective of the approval. We therefore hold the bill insufficient on demurrer, without further inquiry.
Decree affirmed, and cause remanded.