Personette v. Personette
Personette v. Personette
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from a decree of the orphans court of Essex county, allowing a claim of $595.13, made by the respondent, administratrix of Dr. Stephen Personette, deceased, against the estate of the intestate, who was her husband, and adjudging that sixty shares of the stock of the American Mutual Insurance Company, of Newark, were the property of the estate of William P. Riker, deceased (one of whose executors Dr. Personette was), and that they were properly delivered over by the respondent to the surviving executor of Riker accordingly, and therefore also properly omitted from the inventory of the personal estate of Dr. Personette. The decree was made in proceedings to-declare the estate insolvent. The appellants • insist that the orphans court, in allowing the claim of the widow and justifying her act in delivering over the stock, in each case, established a trust, and so exceeded its jurisdiction. The posi
As to the scrip : The evidence is that Dr. Personette was one of the executors of Riker. After Dr. Personette’s death, there were found in his safe various papers belonging to the various estates of which he was or had been executor or administrator. Among them was an envelope, marked in his handwriting, “ Bonds and Scrip,” or “ Bonds and Securities ” (the witness states it both ways) “belonging to the estate of William P. Riker.” A few weeks before his death (he died suddenly from an accident) Dr. Personette said to his co-executor of the Riker estate that the estate was invested (he hád had sole charge of it) in bonds and securities, and that if he should die his papers and books would show just what was the property belonging to that estate, and that his co-executor would kuow what it was by the papers and endorsements. The scrip in question stood in the name of Dr. Personette, individually. Among the papers in the safe designated as belonging to the Riker estate, was Dr. Personette’s note for $500 in favor of that estate. Because it was seven years old, the person (the attorney in fact or,agent of the administratrix) who first examined the papers after Dr. Personette’s death, regarded it as worthless, and therefore destroyed it. There was also an account of Dr. Personette with
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.