Brewer v. King

PATROSSO, J. pro tem. This is an appeal by Gladys King as administratrix with the will annexed of the estate of George W. King, deceased, from an order settling the first ac'eount and report of the executors in the above named estate which was made following an order dismissing appellant’s objections thereto.

The question presented is whether appellant is a “person interested in the estate” within the meaning of Probate Code, section 927, and as such entitled to be heard in opposition to the account. Appellant’s interest in the estate, if any, rests solely upon the fact, as set forth in her objections, that she had instituted suits which are pending and undetermined to quiet title and declare a trust in all of the real property described in the inventory, which real properties comprise all of the assets of the estate except an automobile and some miscellaneous household furniture.

A substantially similar question has but recently been the subject of intensive consideration by our Supreme Court in the Estate of Dabney, 37 Cal.2d 672 [234 P.2d 962], There the appellants had filed objections to three separate petitions for ratable distribution upon the ground that they had instituted and that there was then pending a suit in equity wherein they sought establishment of constructive and resulting trusts, the quieting of adverse claims to their asserted title, an accounting, an injunction and other relief, all based upon the allegations of their equitable ownership in properties inventoried as assets of the estate. The trial court dismissed appellants’ objections and entered orders granting the [470]petitions for distribution as prayed for. From these orders an appeal was taken, and in an elaborate opinion in which all of the authorities upon the subject are considered and discussed the court held that the appellants were not persons interested in the estate and dismissed their appeal.

While this decision would appear to be controlling here and require an affirmance of the order appealed from, appellant seeks to escape the force thereof by the assertion that in its opinion the Supreme Court “showed a marked disposition toward enlargement of the included class (‘persons interested’) and by its reference to Estate of Ricaud, 57 Cal. 421, and Estate of King, 199 Cal. 113 [248 P. 519], indicated its intention to give some measure of relief if and when, as here, the facts warranted such intervention.” We read no such intention in the court’s opinion. On the contrary, the court there rejected a substantially similar argument and in so doing used the following language (p. 682):