28 Mo. App. 190 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1887
delivered the opinion of the court.
Bradford Allen died on November 26, 1884, and letters testamentary on his estate were granted to the present defendant on December 27, 1884. On December 9, 1886, the present plaintiff presented for allowance in
It is contended by the defendant that no law authorizes the enforcement of demands for taxes against the estate by the methods here put in operation; that the only provisions for enforcing the collection of taxes are: As to taxes on personalty, by distraint, under Revised Statutes, section 6754; and as to taxes on real estate, by suit, under section 6836. It is a mistake to suppose that these statutory provisions were intended to supersede other means of collection, specially provided for, in the cases of deceased persons. The remedies are cumulative. By Revised Statutes, section 184, “all demands against the estate of any deceased person shall be divided into the following classes: * * * 3. All debts, including taxes due the state, or any county, or incorporated city or town; and it shall be the duty of the executor or administrator to pay all such taxes without any demand therefor being presented to the court for allowance.”
It is argued that this section of the statute can not mean that demands for taxes are to be allowed and classified in the probate court, because they are not “ debts ” in any sense of the term. “ All debts, including taxes,” is, therefore, an incongruous and unmeaning form of words, to which no intelligible value can be given. Such, at least, seems to be the substance and effect of an ingenious argument which traces from an early period the successive evolutions in legislation which have led up to the present form of the enactment. But we think that the true solution of the question may be found by a simpler and more direct process.
If any one rule of statutory interpretation is more imperative than others, or more comprehensive of the ultimate purposes of all rules, it is that which demands the
No other question is here presented for our consideration, and, as we find that the court below correctly applied the statute under examination,, we affirm the judgment.