Potter's Estate
Potter's Estate
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
W. L. Potter died intestate in 1897, leaving a widow and one child, who was then eight years of age. Within two weeks from her father’s death W. S. Huslander was appointed her guardian. The deceased was seized at the time of his death of an undivided one-third interest in certain real estate, and, in the latter part of 1904, the appellee presented his petition to the court below, setting forth that an offer had been made to him for the purchase of the interest of his ward in the real estate of her deceased father, for the sum of $1,800 and that the petitioner believed the price or sum so offered was better and higher than could be procured, under the circumstances, at a public sale. An order was duly made, authorizing him to sell for the said sum, and to it he made return that he had sold in pursuance of it and on the terms prescribed in it. His petition was accompanied by two affidavits, setting forth that the averments in it were true.
The appellee failed to file an account as guardian after his ward attained her majority, and, in 1912, when she was twenty-three years of age, she presented a petition for a citation commanding him to appear and show cause why he should not account. In answer to this he averred that, notwithstanding what he had set forth in his petition for the order of sale and in his return to the same, and in his deed, acknowledged in open court and delivered to the purchaser, he had not received any cash on account of the purchase-money, but had taken from the vendees two promissory notes of a
We know of no precedent—and there certainly is no authority—for the action of the court below. The question before it was not as to the liability of a trustee for failure to exercise common skill, common prudence and ¡ common caution in the management of a ward’s estate, ! and Calhoun’s Est., 6 Watts 185, and Nyce’s Est., 5 W. & S. 254, the two cases upon which the court relied as authority in. support of its decree relieving the guardian
The decree of the court below is reversed and the record remitted. The first two exceptions to appellee’s account, as filed, are sustained and he is directed to restate the same in accordance with the view expressed in this opinion, and to pay the costs below and here.
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Guardian and ward—Sale of ward’s real estafe—Acceptance of notes in payment—Nonpayment of notes—Liability of guardian for purchase-money. A guardian was authorized to sell his ward’s real estate upon his petition setting forth under oath that he had been offered $1,800 therefor, and that said price was better and higher than could be obtained at public sale. The guardian made return stating that he had sold the property for $1,800 and the deed which was acknowledged in open court certified to the receipt of such amount as having been paid by the purchaser to the guardian at and before the execution and delivery thereof. After the ward became of age, the guardian filed an account charging himself with only $1,200, the amount of promissory notes which he stated he had received from the purchasers in payment and claiming credit for the amount of said notes as being uncollectible. The Orphans’ Court refused to surcharge the guardian with the purchase-money of the property on the ground that he had acted in good faith. Held, reversing the Orphans’ Court’s decree, that the guardian should be surcharged with the purchase-money of the property with interest from the date of sale.