54 Ark. 33 | Ark. | 1890
John Turner was a resident and citizen of Ashley county, in this State, and died there in September, 1869, leaving real and personal property in that county, and in the State of Louisiana. Letters of administration on the estate in Arkansas were granted on the 20th of September, 1869, to John C. Eckles, who qualified as administrator and administered the estate. About the same time W. H. Vaughan became administrator of so much of the estate as was in Louisiana. Mary A. Risor, a citizen and resident of the State of Louisiana, having a subsisting demand against the estate, recovered a judgment against Vaughan, as such administrator, for the sum of $533 and interest. The estate in Arkansas was fully and duly administered, and the property remaining on hand after the payment of the debts probated against it was distributed and divided among the heirs of the deceased. Mrs. Risor failed to present her claim to the administrator in Arkansas within two years after the date of his letters, but waited until the assets in the hands of the Louisiana administrator were exhausted, and then, failing to collect her claim, brought this action against the heirs and distributees to recover her debt out of the property which they had received in this State, notwithstanding she had wholly failed to present her claim to the Arkansas administrator.
The primary administration was in this State. It is unlike an ancillary administration. An ancillary administration is taken out for the benefit of resident creditors, legatees and distributees. In Shegogg v. Perkins, 34 Ark , 117, 131, it is said that it is generally held “subordinate to the original administration,” and that the only duty devolving upon the administrator is to collect the assets in the State in which it was granted, and appropriate so much of the avails of the same to the payment of creditors residing in such State as would be authorized by the general solvency or insolvency of the estate of the deceased, and remit the balance to the place of the primary administration. Whether this doctrine be correct or not, the primary administration, is for the benefit of resident and non-resident creditors. Non-resident creditors can, and are required to, prove up their claims against it in the same time as the resident. In this case, Mrs. Risor might have prosecuted her original claim against the primary administration in Arkansas at the same time she was prosecuting it in Louisiana. She was under no necessity to wait until she had prosecuted it to judgment, or until the ancillary administration was closed, or until she was barred by our statute of non-claim. I11 fact she could not wait until the two years from the grant of letters of administration in this State had expired, and then pursue the assets in the hands of the heirs. When the two years expired, her claim was barred. She cannot now successfully prosecute it to recovery against the heirs or distributees to whom assets have descended. She does not come within that class who may in equity subject the assets in the hands of the heirs to the payment of their debts. She is not a creditor whose claim has been duly proved or whose claim came into existence too late to be proved, or after the administration was closed. She had a subsisting demand against the estate when letters of administration were first granted. In such cases equity will not set aside or disregard the statute, but will be governed by it. Low v. Bartlett, 8 Allen, 259 ; Hall v. Brewer, 40 Ark., 433; Mansf. Dig., sec. 97; Erwin v. Turner, 6 Ark., 14; Morgan v. Hamlet, 113 U. S., 449; Churchill v. Boyden, 17 Vt., 319; Dawes v. Head, 3 Pick., 145-6.
The decree of the circuit court is, therefore, reversed, and the complaint is dismissed.