Ruhlman v. Lowe

SPENCE, J. This is an appeal by two of the residuary legatees from the order of the trial court decreeing partial distribution in the sum of $2,500 to Albert J. Ruhlman.

The testatrix died in 1939. By her last will and the codicil thereto, the testatrix bequeathed to Albert J. Ruhlman the sum of $10,000, her stock in the Standard Oil Company of California and her stock in A. J. Ruhlman & Company. She devised her real property in San Francisco to her nieces Elsa K. Dernham and Helen M. Lowe, who are the appellants herein, and devised her real property in Monterey County to her niece Elsa K. Dernham. The residue of the estate was bequeathed to said nieces and others. Monte A. Dernham, the husband of Elsa K. Dernham, was named as executor and he qualified as such on October 5, 1939.

No inventory and appraisement was filed by the executor until January 7, 1943, although on April 3, 1942, the probate court had ordered the inventory filed. In response to that order, said executor had filed a purported inventory without an appraisement. It was not until after the petitioner had filed his petition for partial distribution and also his petition for removal of the executor that the executor filed the inventory and appraisement. It appears therefrom that the estate of the testatrix was appraised at $85,619.48. It consisted of cash in excess of $14,600, certain real estate and also stocks and other personal property. The 20 shares of the Standard Oil Company were appraised at $660 and the 376% shares of A. J. Ruhlman & Co. were appraised at $12,294.47. A promissory note executed in favor of the testatrix by A. J. Ruhlman & Co. in the principal sum of $2,500 was appraised at $262.93 and a “debt due decedent from A. J. Ruhlman & Co. and/or A. J. Ruhlman” was appraised at “nil.”

Objections to Albert J. Ruhlman’s petition for distribution were filed by the executor and by the appellants herein. Hearings were had upon said petition but the hearing upon the petition for removal of the executor was continued and remained undetermined when the order for partial distribution was entered. The inventory and appraisement was filed after the hearings had been commenced upon said petition for distribution.

Upon said hearings, it appeared that all debts and claims against the estate had been paid except a balance due to the State of California for inheritance taxes, which taxes with respect to the petitioner amounted to $1,825.73 according to an estimate of the inheritance tax appraiser; that there re[527]