20 Ga. App. 328 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1917
The decedent’s estate consisted of a solitary-mule, which was covered by a purchase-money mortgage reciting that it- was given for the purpose of securing the purchase-money debt. The funeral expenses of the decedent amounted to more than the value of the mule. The trial judge held that the lien for the funeral expenses was superior to the lien for the balance of the purchase-money of the mule, and directed the administrator to pay such expenses ahead of the payment of the mortgage. The mortgagees excepted. In our opinion that decision was correct. Under section 4000 of the Code of 1910, which provides how liens shall rank in priority in the payment of the debts of a deceased person, a year’s support for the family comes first, and the funeral expenses of the deceased come next. Mortgage liens are ranked in the sixth place. By the act of 1903 (Acts of 1903, p. 76, Park’s Ann. Code, § 4049) it is provided that a lien of a purchase-money mortgage on personal property shall be paid out of the estate of the deceased ahead of the year’s support for the family, where it is expressly stated in the mortgage that it is executed and delivered for the purpose of securing the debt for such purchase-money; and it is contended by counsel for the mortgagees that this act necessarily made the lien of such" a mortgage superior to the lien for the funeral expenses, since, under the code-section cited above, the payment of the year’s support for the family is ranked ahead of payment of the funeral expenses. We can not agree with this contention. The act of 1903 did not purport or attempt to regulate or change the general law as to the priority of the payment of the debts of a deceased person, as set forth in code-section 4000. It provided for one specific change in the law only, and that was,
Judgment affirmed.
