In re the Estate of Isaacs

By the Court, Currey, C. J.: The executors of the last will and testament of Henry I. Isaacs, deceased, have appealed from the decree of the Probate Court of the City and County of San Francisco, made upon a final accounting and settlement of their administration and trust as such executors. The executors rendered their account, which was annexed to and made part of their petition praying a final settlement of their administration and a discharge from their trust. This petition and account was filed- on the 6th of July, 1864. In due time the Court rendered its decree of final settlement and discharge of the executors. To the account rendered and filed the widow of the deceased, in her own behalf and as guardian of her infant children, filed exceptions. After “ having heard the witnesses and proofs of both parties on the subject of the exceptions to said account, and a full investigation having been had, and the Court having duly considered the matter of said final account and all the proceedings of said executors,” the Court found “that the said executors, in their account, have duly charged themselves with the whole of said estate, real and personal, which has come to their possession at the appraisement contained in the inventory, and also with all the increase, profit and income of the said estate; that they have also faithfully accounted for all losses by the decrease or destruction of any part of the estate, and by uncollected debts; that they are not responsible for said losses, and that the same are without their fault; that all the proceedings in the administration have been conducted fairly and justly, and in accordance with the provisions of the statute regulating the same; that the said executors have not in any manner mismanaged or wasted the estate, and that all proceedings necessary to a final settlement of said estate have been had.”

Further, the Court found that the whole amount of the estate which had come to the hands of the executors and for which they accounted was forty thousand one hundred and twenty-two dollars and eighty-nine cents.

[109]By the finding it appears that on the 7th of June, 1862, one Lewis Levason presented to the executors for allowance an account against the estate, claiming five thousand four hundred and seventy-three dollars and nine cents, with interest thereon from the 25th of March of the same year at the rate of one and a half per cent per month, which the executors rejected, and that thereupon Levason commenced an action in the District Court against them for its recovery, and that subsequently the executors, on due consideration, consented that judgment should go against the estate for the sum of four thousand nine hundred and nineteen dollars and thirty-four cents instead of the amount of five thousand four hundred and seventy-three dollars and nine cents claimed in the action; and that the sum of four thousand nine hundred and nineteen dollars and thirty-four cents should bear interest from said 25th of March at the rate of one and a half per cent per month. The judgment obtained by Levason with the interest that had accrued thereon was paid to him by the executors on the 1st of June, 1864. It amounted at that time to seven thousand and seventeen dollars and sixteen cents. The Court then decided that although the executors were right in allowing the amount of four, thousand nine hundred and nineteen dollars and thirty-four cents as principal due upon Levason’s demand, they were in error in allowing interest thereon at a rate exceeding ten per cent per annum, and therefore it was decreed that the difference between the rate allowed and ten per cent per annum, which amounted to eight hundred and fifty-three dollars and fourteen cents, should be charged to the executors and deducted from their commissions.