42 W. Va. 454 | W. Va. | 1896
On appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court of Preston county entered in favor of plaintiff on the 3d day of April on a bill to surcharge and falsify the ex parte settlement of the accounts of the intestate of Charles C. Stone as the committee of plaintiff. On the-day of-, Samuel R. Trowbridge died, intestate, leaving several heirs and a considerable estate. Among the heirs was the plaintiff, an imbecile daughter, thirty year’s of age, suing by her sister and next friend in this suit, Martha Parks, and Harriet Stone, the wife of Charles C. Stone. Charles C. Stone, the son-in-law, qualified as the administrator of the estate of Samuel R. Trowbridge, deceased; also as the committee of his imbecile sister-in-law, whom he took into his family, and supported during his life. He charged himself, on October 11, 1865, as her committee, with having received in cash from her father’s estate the sum of one hundred and twenty dollars and fifty three cents, and on the 1st day of January with six hundred and ninety six dollars and twenty one cents with twenty seven dollars and eighty five cents interest to January 1, 1878, as cash received for her from the sale of Samuel G. Trowbridge’s land. On the 28th day of January, 1871, James W. Parks, one of the commissioners of the county court, made an ex parte settlement of the account of the estate of Margaret J. Trowbridge with “William J. Stone, her committee, debiting her. estate with
The second and important question is, was the claim of plaintiff barred by any statute of limitation — the bar of five years, as claimed and setup by defendant — or has the plaintiff been guilty of such laches, or is her claim a stale one, so that the Court ought not to entertain her suit? In regard to these ex parte settlements the statute says (section 22, chapter 87) that thé report, to the extent to which it may be so confirmed, shall be taken to be correct, except so far as the same may in a suit, in proper time, be surcharged or falsi
Decree complained of affirmed.