40 Ga. App. 380 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1929
This is a suit by Miss Florence Inez Steed against Mrs. Hattie Steed, as the administratrix of the estate of Owen Steed, to recover $383.33, an alleged balance due of a legacy of $500 which, it is alleged, was devised to the plaintiff by the will of Mrs. Susan Frances Jackson, and which the defendant’s intestate had, as executor, held for the plaintiff. The defendant admitted these allegations, but sought to absolve the estate of Owen Steed from liability to the plaintiff, upon the ground that the intestate deposited $500, representing the legacy, in a solvent bank, viz. the Bank of Palmetto, where it continued to lie on deposit until the failure of the bank after the intestate’s death and after the defendant had qualified as administratrix; that the money on deposit in the bank was the property of the plaintiff, and that any loss affecting this deposit, occasioned by the failure of the bank, was not due to fault of the defendant or her intestate. It appears, from the agreed statement of facts, that Mrs. Susan Frances Jackson died February 2-1, '1921, and iu her will devised to the plaintiff, Miss Florence Inez Steed, a minor, a legacy of $500, to be paid to the plaintiff upon her arrival at the age of twenty-one years; that
Upon a consideration of the agreed statement of facts the trial judge, acting by agreement without a jury, rendered judgment for the plaintiff in the amount sued for. The defendant, by direct bill of exceptions, excepts to this judgment as contrary to law.
The deposit of this fund by Owen Steed in the Bank of Palmetto in his name as guardian for the plaintiff, Miss Florence Inez Steed, did not amount to a discharge of liis trust and a surrender of the fund to her. Had it done so, he would have been relieved of his obligation as trustee, and, after his death, she would have had no claim against his estate. Therefore, the loss of the fund by the failure of the bank afterwards would have been the loss of Miss Florence Inez Steed. The estate of Owen Steed clearly would not have been liable, to her for this fund.
Up to the time of the death of Owen Steed he had control over the fund, although it may have been deposited in the bank in his name as guardian for the designated beneficiary, Miss Florence
The decisions, including Gatewood v. Furlow, 19 Ga. App. 74 (90 S. E. 973), which hold that, where an administrator, or any person who holds funds of another in a fiduciary capacity, deposits the funds in his name as fiduciary and for the benefit of the beneficiary in a solvent bank, and the funds are thereafter lost by the failure of the bank and through no fault of the administrator or fiduciary, the latter is not responsible to the beneficiary for the loss, have reference only to the personal liability of administrators or fiduciaries of funds, and have no reference to the liability of an administrator as
Since it appears, from the evidence, that the estate of Owen Steed possessed property other than this fiduciary fund which had been lost by the failure of the bank, and was solvent, it must be inferred, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the estate possessed sufficient funds to discharge this fiduciary debt of Owen Steed as executor of the will of Mrs. Susan Frances Jackson to the plaintiff, Miss Florence Inez Steed, in accordance with the priorities fixed by law for the payment of the debts of the estate of Owen Steed.
The judgment found for the plaintiff in the amount sued for was authorized, under the law and the evidence.
Judgment affirmed.