Richardson v. Royal Indemnity Co.

SHENK, J. This appeal is from an order settling the first and final account and report of the administrator of the decedent’s estate. It is presented on a bill of exceptions.

On April 18,1919, Charles T. Chandler was duly appointed the guardian of the estate of Anna Baxter, an incompetent person. On March 2, 1922, Anna Baxter died. Chandler was then, on May 8, 1922, duly appointed the administrator of her estate. In June, 1922, he filed his third and final account in the guardianship proceeding, showing a balance in his possession as guardian of $31,295.25. That account was approved and settled by the court in the same month, and Chandler was ordered to deliver all property in his hands as guardian of the incompetent to himself as administrator. As such administrator he filed an inventory in the decedent’s estate showing the sum of $31,700.25 as the total appraised value of all property which had come into his possession. On May 11, 1925, Chandler as administrator filed his first and final account and report, and a petition for distribution. That account showed receipts of $32,279.81, and disbursements of $31,001.78, which included partial distribution to three surviving brothers of the decedent, Joseph W. Hale, Charles N. Hale and Thomas H. Hale, leaving a balance on hand of $1278.03. At the hearing, pursuant to stipulation dated May 29, 1925, between the attorney for [168]Chandler as administrator, and Clarence A. Henning, as administrator of the estate of the deceased Thomas H. Hale, said first and final account and petition for distribution was stricken from the calendar and it was agreed that an amended final account would be filed in the ordinary course. Thereupon the court ordered a reduction in the bond of the administrator from $30,000 to $2,000 upon the showing that less than the latter amount remained in the possession of the administrator and that no additional funds or estate were expected to come into his possession.

No further proceedings were taken in said estate until the filing of the amended final account hereinafter mentioned. On May 24, 1935, Charles T. Chandler died, and on June 12, 1937, P. L. Richardson was appointed administrator de bonis non of the estate of Anna Baxter, deceased. On September 10, 1937, R. P. Smith was appointed administrator of Chandler’s estate. On March 5, 1938, Smith, assuming to act on behalf of the estate of Charles T. Chandler, filed in the matter of the estate of Anna Baxter, deceased, an account designated “Amended Pinal Account” of Chandler’s administration of the Baxter estate. In that amended final account Smith alleged that Chandler as guardian of the estate of Anna Baxter, an incompetent person, had received funds or property in excess of the amount reported by Chandler as such guardian to the extent of $17,901.53, and that Chandler at the time of his death was therefore indebted to the estate of Anna Baxter, deceased, in said amount. Royal Indemnity Company, respondent herein, filed objections to said amended final account in the form of a denial of the allegations thereof. On the hearing of said account and the first and final account previously filed by Chandler which had been put off calendar, and the objections thereto, the court found receipts totaling $32,279.81, and disbursements pursuant to appropriate orders in the sum of $31,655.98. It concluded that Chandler, as administrator, was chargeable with the difference between those sums, or $623.83, with interest on a portion thereof compounded annually.