In re Estate of Page

McKee, J.: Appeal from a judgment of the late Probate Court of Alameda County, settling the second annual account of the estate of Charlotte M. Page, deceased.

The transcript on appeal contains what purports to be a bill of exceptions, in ■ which it is stated, in substance, that the guardian of a minor child of the decedent had, by his attorney, filed written objections to the account of the administratrix, and that after a hearing had, the Court allowed the account, to which the guardian excepted, and “ now proposes this, his bill of exceptions.’’ What purports to have been the testimony of the administratrix and of her attorney given at the hearing is then stated, and this is followed by the statement that “no evidence was offered on behalf of the contestant,” and that “upon such evidence the Court erred in allowing the account as rendered,” and also in allowing certain enumerated items thereof.

In all this, no exception appears to have been taken to any ruling made by the Court during the hearing of the cause, or to any decision of the Court in the allowance of any objectionable item of the account. An exception is an objection upon a matter of law to a decision made by a' Court. (§ 646, Code Civ. Proc.) To make it effectual in a bill of exceptions, the objection should be stated, and also the ground upon which it was made. If it was made upon the ground that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the decision, the deficiencies of the evidence should be specifically stated. (§ 648, Code Civ. Proc.) If it was made upon grounds of error of law, the proper mode in an action tried by the Court without a jury is to ask the Court to decide what counsel may consider an applicable principle of law, and upon a refusal, to have it noted in the bill of exceptions. (Griswold v. Sharp, 2 Cal. 23; Touchard v. Crow, 20 id. 163.) But the mere statement in a bill of exceptions, that a party excepted to a decision of the Court, unaccompanied by the objection and the grounds—whether of law or of fact—upon which it was made, does not constitute an exception upon which any question involved is examinable by this Court; and under such circumstances, we [240]can only deal with such questions as may arise upon the judgment roll.

In a proceeding for settlement of an account of an administrator, the petition and account, and the written objections filed to it, are the pleadings which the clerk of the Court is required to attach to a copy of the judgment (§ 670, Code Civ. Proc.) ; and these constitute the judgment roll. (Estate of Isaacs, 30 Cal. 106.) Among the items of the account in the judgment roll of this case are the following :