Learned v. Learned Garden (1909) · DecisionDepot

Learned v. Learned Garden

Name: California Superior Court Tentative Rulings
Creator: DecisionDepot
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

California Supreme Court Sep 22, 1909 No. Sac. No. 1698.Published

Before: Melvin

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Holding. The court held that a final decree of distribution is conclusive and cannot be impeached in subsequent proceedings, and that the executor's acceptance of a prior decree regarding real property did not forfeit his right to inherit personal property bequeathed to him under the will.

Issues

Whether a final decree of distribution is subject to collateral attack in subsequent proceedings regarding the same estate.
Whether an executor forfeits his right to inherit personal property under a will by accepting a prior decree of distribution concerning real property that allegedly deviated from the will's terms.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“But the judgment construing the will and making the first distribution having become final, we cannot now consider an impeachment of the decree of the will itself.”

“All of the rulings of the trial court which were adverse to the appellants were evidently based upon the theory that the decree of 1904 was conclusive as against appellants. We think the court was correct in this idea of the law.”

Synopsis

APPEAL from a decree of the Superior Court of San Joaquin County distributing the .estate of a deceased person, and from an order refusing a new trial. G. W. Norton, Judge.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

MELVIN, J.

This is an appeal prosecuted by the opponents to D. A. Learned’s petition for settlement of his final account as executor of the estate of Gennis H. Learned, de

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ceased, and for the distribution to him of the entire personal property of said estate. There was a judgment and decree of distribution in accordance with the prayer of D. A. Learned’s petition and the appeal is taken therefrom, as well as from the order denying a motion for a new trial.

Gennis H. Learned died testate in 1903 and D. A. Learned was appointed executor of her last will. After due administration the said D. A. Learned took distribution of the entire property of the estate of Gennis H. Learned which had then come into his possession. He was finally discharged and the estate was fully settled and closed May 31, 1904.

In June, 1908, D. A. Learned petitioned for the reissuance of letters testamentary in the estate of Gennis H. Learned, deceased, alleging that said Gennis H. Learned was at the time of her death an heir of her sister, Deborah H. Lee, who died intestate in March, 1903, and whose estate at the date of D. A. Learned’s second petition for letters testamentary was in process of administration in the superior court of this state in and for the county of San Joaquin. The appellants here are not seeking to set aside the decree of distribution in the estate of Gennis H. Learned, made in 1904, but they contend that the interest of Gennis H. Learned’s estate in the estate of Deborah H. Lee (which relates to personal property) should not be distributed under the terms of Gennis H. Learned’s will, but should be treated as if she had died intestate. This contention is based upon the theory that by failing to comply with the terms of the mutual will executed by Gennis H. Learned and D. A. Learned, the latter had forfeited his right to take under that will.

By the terms of said will everything owned by D. A. Learned and Gennis H. Learned was declared to be community property, and all personal property was bequeathed to the survivor who was named as executor or executrix, as the case might be. All realty was devised -to the survivor with remainder in fee to four of their children in severalty, the exact portion of each child being described in the will.

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singular the real property of which either of us may die seized or possessed.” The above provision applies with no ambiguity to the separate property of Gennis IT. Learned. Whatever may have been the court’s interpretation of the will at the time of the first distribution thereunder, there can be no doubt that this clause was properly construed when the second decree was made. Indeed, appellants do not say that under the terms of the will D. A. Learned was not entitled to all of the interest derived from the estate of Deborah IT. Lee; but they are seeking to prevent him from taking personalty bequeathed to him, because he accepted a decree with reference to the realty inconsistent with the will, and as they allege, dealt with said realty in a manner not warranted by the testamentary provisions. It will be seen, however, that although the will executed by the Learneds is mutual in form, it is in effect the separate will of each of them. There is nothing to indicate that it was the result of such mutual agreement or based upon such consideration as would deprive the survivor of his right of revocation. (See Civ. Code, sec. 1279.) The survivor, if through an erroneous interpretation by the court, he took distribution of an interest different from that intended by the testatrix, would not, after such disposition of the property had become fixed by lapse of time and lack of appeal, be bound to retain such dominion over the property as would permit of its distribution upon his death according to the identical will executed by himself and wife. But even if there were such compulsion upon him, it would have been asserted with reference to the real property and not as against the personalty. The only interest which Mrs. Learned attempted to devise to these appellants was a remainder in real property. If they attempted to secure that interest, and without fraud on the part of Mr. Learned (and none is alleged) he secured such rights adverse to them as they neglected to question at the. proper time, they cannot atone for their neglect, and repair the result of their laches by obtaining an interest in property of a different character from that left to them by the terms of the will.

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Synopsis

MELVIN, J.

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