Commercial Bank of San Luis Obispo v. Burke

Estates of Deceased Persons—Payment of Claims without Order of Cowrit —Insolvency of Estate—Settlement .of Annual Accounts—Appeal-able Order—Conclusiveness upon Unpaid Creditors—Final Account. Though it is the proper practice for the administrator to obtain an order for the payment of general creditors, and without such order payments are made at his peril; yet where the payment of such claims is credited in his annual accounts, and such accounts are allowed and settled by the court, the order allowing them is not void, but is an appealable order, which, however ill-allowed or erroneous, becomes conclusive upon unpaid creditors who do not appeal therefrom; and the fact that an apparently solvent estate appears to be insolvent, upon settlement of the final account of the administrator, cannot authorize an attack by an unpaid creditor upon the items of payments to creditors allowed in the previous annual accounts of the administrator.

In.—Family Allowance—Order Prior to Inventory—Allowance of Payments after Inventory.—Payments made on account of family allowance after the filing of the inventory, without further or other order of the court than that made for such payments until the filing of the inventory, or until further order of the court, which were settled- and allowed in the annual accounts, without appeal therefrom, cannot be objected to upon settlement of the final account because of the final insolvency of the estate; and a payment made by the administrator thereon after the last settlement of an annual account, in good faith, at a time when the estate was not known to be insolvent, and when the family was without other means of support, may be properly allowed by the court in the settlement of the final account.

Id.—Commissions of Administrator—Real Estate Sold under Deed of Trust.—The commissions of the administrator are to be allowed upon the amount of the estate accounted for by him; but the valuation in the inventory is not conclusive evidence of such amount, and where real estate, inventoried at much more than the amount of a deed of trust, was sold under the deed of trust, the administrator cannot be allowed commissions upon its appraised value in the inventory, or upon any greater amount than the sum for which the property was actually sold.

Id.—Carrying on of Business—Care of Animals—Allowance of Expense. The expense of the proper caring by the administrator of sheep, lambs, cattle, hogs, horses, and colts, until they were sold, is not such carrying on of the business of the decedent as will make the administrator liable for loss and expense to the estate incurred on account thereof; but it was the duty of the administrator to care for them until they could be advantageously sold; and where the court found that the administrator managed the estate in a businesslike manner, and used every necessary and prudent measure to protect it, he was properly allowed in his final account the expenses , incurred in the care of such animals, notwithstanding the final insolvency of the estate.