Crocker-Anglo National Bank v. Claude T. Lindsay, Inc.

TOBRINER, J. We must determine if a claim involving the purchase of goods for a liquidated sum on the terms of “2% ten; net 30” affords the right to statutory interest from the date of expiration of 30 days, or from any other date, prior to an order for the payment of the claim, within the meaning of the Probate Code. We have concluded that it fails to do so here because (1) the claim, presented to the executrix, made no demand for interest; (2) the claim on its face did not call for interest; and finally (3) the creditor was entitled to interest only from the date of order of payment.

The representative of the estate did not, at any time, approve a claim for the payment of interest. Following decedent’s death on October 9,1951, respondent on February 1,1952, filed a claim with the original executrix for the principal sum due in the amount of $9,422.04 for sale of lumber by respondent to decedent. The invoices of the sales were not attached to it. The executrix allowed the claim on March 24, 1952, and some three days later received invoices supporting the claim ‘‘for filing or such use as you find it necessary to make of them in the presentation of the claim to the court.” The probate court on April 17, 1952, approved the claim to which there were invoices attached, itemized by amount and number, each stating ‘‘2% ten; net 30.”

Upon the removal of the original executrix she filed a final account and report of her administration, together with a petition for settlement of the account and report which included the allowance to respondent of $9,422.04. After the appropriate notices, her account was settled as requested, the order being filed on March 4, 1954.

Despite the solvency of the estate, complications prevented [507]payment of claims for years. On August 16, 1957, respondent for the first time filed a petition requesting that interest be allowed on its claim for the original filing date of February 1, 1952. The successor executor, Crocker-Anglo National Bank, opposed this petition but on September 4, 1957, the probate court ordered that petitioner's claim bear interest “at the rate of seven per cent per annum commencing thirty days after date of each invoice.” Crocker-Anglo, as executor, appeals from this decree.

The original presentation of the instant claim, which did not assert the payment of interest on the principal of the indebtedness, cannot serve to initiate the payment of interest. The applicable test is apparently an old one, emanating from a case in which a creditor, like the present one, made demand for the payment of the total principal due on an account for goods sold and delivered but failed to include reference to interest. In Aguirre v. Packard (1859), 14 Cal. 171 [73 Am. Dec. 645], the Supreme Court, in ruling upon an account presented to the administrator which did not ‘ ‘ show any item of interest,” said, “Perhaps this would not be necessary if the face of the paper showed that interest resulted as a matter of course from the facts stated as constituting the claim. But when this does not appear, we think that the party cannot recover on this account any more than for an article of goods or other item of indebtedness omitted from the statement of claim presented to the administrator.” (Pp. 172, 173.)