101 Mo. App. 669 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1903
This is an action on the bond of Thomas M. Lane as pnhlic administrator of Butler •county, Missouri, hy virtue of an election held November 8,1892. Lane was first elected public administrator of said county in 1888 and gave bond on December 13, 1888, with W. F. Neal and others as sureties. While Lane was serving his first term, the estate of relator Alonzo Scott, then a minor, was ordered into his hands hy the probate court of Butler county, and he was appointed ex officio curator of said estate. He remained in charge of it until his death, which occurred January 30, 1895, during his second term, and meanwhile had made several annual settlements. After Lane’s death, James L. Dalton was appointed administrator of his individual estate, and qualified as such, and Aaron Mast was appointed and commissioned public administrator of Butler county to fill out Lane’s unexpired term. On March 4, 1895, the probate court ordered Aaron Mast to take charge of the estate of Alonzo Scott and thereafter on May 9th, Dalton, as administrator of Lane’s ■estate in charge of Scott’s estate, made (as appellants’ abstract says ) “a transfer settlement of assets” in his hands belonging to the estate of Alonzo Scott to Aaron Mast the new public administrator, which settlement showed a balance due the estate of $356.75, and Mast subsequently charged himself with that sum in Ms annual settlements. Dalton afterwards resigned as administrator of Lane’s individual estate and turned that over likewise to Mast hy order of the probate court. It was conclusively shown by the evidence of both Dalton and Mast that instead of Dalton delivering to Mast any assets in his hands as administrator of Lane’s estate which belonged to the estate of Scott, the minor, Dalton found no such assets among Lane’s effects. About all the assets Lane had when he died were several thousand dollars worth of promissory
Three defenses are made:
First, that the action ought to be on Lane’s first official bond because he took charge of Scott’s estate during his first term of office.
Second, that the settlement made by Dalton, as administrator of Lane’s estate in charge of Scott’s, has the force and effect of a final judgment and exonerates Lane’s estate and his sureties from liability; that there
Third, that if an action will lie on Lane’s bond it must be brought by the curator now in charge of Scott’s estate, as there has been no final settlement of it.
The judgment is affirmed.