Linthecum v. Vowels' Exr.
Linthecum v. Vowels' Exr.
Opinion of the Court
OPINION op the court by
Affirming.
'The will of Thos. Vowels, a citizen and resident of Daviess county, was probated by the Daviess county court on the 16th of November, 1903, and his son, Tavian Vowels, the named executor thereof, qualified by taking the oath and executing the bond required by law. Appraisers were promptly appointed, and on the 24th of November, 1903, thereafter, filed an inventory and appraisement of the personal estate of decedent in the county court clerk’s office, attested ■by the executor as required by law. On the 14th of December thereafter the executor filed in the office of the county court clerk a sale bill of personalty belonging to the estate of decedent sold by him at public auction on the 5th day of the preceding December. Testator was survived by six children and nine grandchildren, who were the children of a daughter, who married J. C. Lintlieeum. On the 25th of December, J. C. Linthecum brought this suit as next friend of his infant children against the appellee as executor, in which he alleged that the defendant had failed to have appraised certain articles of personal property of the value of $505.50, which belonged to the estate of testator, and prayed, first, that the defendant should be required to settle his accounts as executor; second, that he should be charged with the various articles of personal property alleged to have been omitted from the appraisement and sale bill; and, third, that the land devised by testator should be adjudged to be sold and the proceeds divided among the devisees according to the will. To this petition
The main question to be decided upon the appeal is whether a testator can fix a time for the settlement of the accounts of his executor different from that named in the statute, which will be binding on his devisees. Section 428 of the Civil Code of Practice provides who may institute an action for the settlement of the estate of a deceased person. Subsection 2 thereof provides that the representatives of the decedent and all persons having an interest in the property left by the decedent, or any part thereof, and the creditors of the decedent, must be made parties to. the action, plaintiff or defendant. Under these provisions of the Code, we think it quite clear that the trial court properly sustained the special demurrer for defect of parties. Section 3847 of the Kentucky Statutes of 1903 provides that: “Six months must run after the date of the qualification of the first personal representative of a decedent’s estate by a court
In Trimble’s Executor v. Lebus, etc., 94 Ky., 304, 15 R., 85, 22 S. W., 329, it was decided by this court that the statute which provides that no administrator or executor, should sell any dividend paying stock, bonds, or other property which the decedent owned at his death until so ordered-by a court of general equity jurisdiction in the county where the letters of administration were granted or the will recorded, did not apply where a testator had by his will invested his executor with discretionary power to make such sales. The statutes required that an executor or administrator shall execute bond with good security. But a testator has the right, notwithstanding the statute, to provide in his will that his executor shall be permitted to qualify without security, and in this way dispose of the provision of the statute. There is no allegation that the executor has not executed a good bond for the estate which came into his hand. And section 3857 of the Kentucky Statutes of 1903 provides a way for enforcing the return of an inventory or sale bill. If, as alleged, the executor has converted to his own use property belonging to the estate, he will be liable therefor on his bond. But this fact, in our opinion, would not be sufficient to justify'the court at the instance of a devisee under the will to disregard its provision as to the time when settlement of the accounts of the executor might be enforced. Besides, it appears to us that appellee was proceeding with sufficient promptness in the discharge of his duty as executor prior to the institution of the suit.
Perceiving no error in the judgment of the chancellor, it is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.