Parr v. White

MARKS, J. Frank A. Parr died intestate on July 1, 1936. Ben F. White was appointed administrator of his estate on November 2,1936. He qualified and is now the duly qualified and acting administrator of the estate.

The inventory and appraisement of the estate was filed on November 28, 1936. It showed the following assets: Cash, $2,024.25; automobile, $150; personal property consisting of gold watch and clothing, $25, and some shares of stock and participating units, no value. The estate had a total appraised value of $2,199.25.

Mame A. Parr is the widow and sole surviving heir at law of deceased. On December 3, 1936, she filed two petitions in the probate proceedings, one to set aside to her the exempt personal property, and the other to set aside to her the entire estate as it had a value of less than $2,500. The couple had no children and Mrs. Parr had no property except her clothes and personal effects which were of little value. She was dependent upon charity for her support.

The two petitions were consolidated and heard together and were denied. The orders have come before us on a single record. We will consider first the order refusing to set aside the entire estate to the widow.

It appears that deceased during his lifetime was employed by the Southern Pacific Company which carried a blanket insurance policy on its employees. Premiums on the insur[173]anee allotted to each employee were deducted monthly from wages earned and were paid by the company to the insurance carrier. At the time of the death of Mr. Parr the policy had a value of $2,420.98, as found by the court.

Some time before his death, deceased had changed the beneficiary in his policy from Mrs. Parr to Gertrude Jones. This was done without the consent of Mrs. Parr who was living apart from her husband though there had been no divorce.

A controversy arose between Gertrude Jones and Mrs. Parr over the one entitled to receive the amount due from the insurance carrier. This was settled by a contract dated October 20, 1936, executed by the two women, whereby the insurance carrier was directed to pay the funeral expenses of deceased and to pay the balance to the administrator. The funeral bill of $396.73 was paid and the balance, $2,024.25, was paid to the administrator.

The administrator appeared as a witness at the hearing and testified that the appraised value of the automobile was too low as he had “a tentative offer on it of $200.00 at the present time”. He also testified “that although the mining stock is appraised in the inventory as of no value, in my opinion, it is very possible that it may be worth something on account of the district in which it is situated”. It is clear that this last statement is pure speculation and no importance should be attached to it.