Johnston v. Lewis
Johnston v. Lewis
Opinion of the Court
We concur with the chancellor, that the present complainants, the administrators de bonis non, stand in the place of the first administratrix, and are bound wherever she could be bound, and concluded by whatever would conclude her. The object of the bill is to set aside the sale on the ground of fraud. Now, there might be an actual fraud practised on the administra-trix herself, which she herself might sustain a bill to be relieved against; but there is no ground for supposing that any such imposition was practised on her, and so the chancellor has concluded. The charge is, that she fraudulently combined with the defendant to effect the sale, and so defeat the rights of the separate creditors of James R. Pickett. It would seem from the bill, that there could have been no fraud intended on distributees, for the allegation is, that he purchased in trust for those who were the distributees. — ■ The administratrix, in general, represents all creditors and distri-butees, and they cannot be heard but through her, and are bound by her acts. Only, in the case of a fraudulent collusion to misapply the assets, these may be followed by creditors and distributees themselves; but certainly not by her successors in administration. In such case, however, it is necessary that the administratrix herself, or she being dead, her personal representative should be a party to the suit, as being liable in the first instance ; and the bill
In taking the partnership account, if the defendant contributed an equal amount of capital and was entitled to an equal share of the profits, it may be, as the intestate was the acting partner who had the goods in his hands and for the most part received the profits, that he may be found a creditor. If, such were the terms of the partnership, then after exhausting the partnership assets in defendant’s hands, the intestate’s estate was bound to contribute one-half towards paying off the partnership debts. If, as defendant alleges, he only lent his name to the firm and claimed no share of the profits, then the intestate’s estate was bound, as between the parties, for the whole of the debts. If the defendant, as surviving partner, has occasioned the loss of assets, as by improperly discharging the suit against Cassity; or by neglecting to collect debts which he might have collected, he will be chargeable with the amount of this loss. All these things may be inquired of on the reference, and it will determine how far the estate was bound to contribute to the payment of the debt to Robinson and the other partnership debts, which defendant alleges he has paid. If, as suggested in argument, the money advanced to the intestate, being the proceeds of his note, endorsed by defendant and discounted in bank, was in fact applied to partnership purposes, this also may be a subject of inquiry — in short, as I have said, all the money transactions between the parties, so as to show the present state of the accounts between them: And it is ordered accordingly.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.