Lee v. Owen
Lee v. Owen
Opinion of the Court
On December 22, 1928, Hon. R. Q. Lee executed a promissory note for $1,009.35 payable to Mrs. C. Owen, bearing 8 per cent interest, and providing for 10 per cent attorney’s fees. Lee died April 18, 1930. On March 24, 1931 Mrs. Owen filed her claim on said note with Guy Dabney, administrator of the Lee estate; the claim was allowed by the administrator and approved by the probate court, and became a final judgment for the amount then due on said note. Jones v. Wynne, 133 Tex. 436, 129 S.W.2d 279. Thereafter Dabney filed his final account and asked to be discharged as administrator. The account of the administrator falsely recited that the claim of Mrs. Owen and a debt owing to Cisco Banking Company had been paid. The report was approved and Dabney discharged as administrator on August 24, 1931. On July 29, 1931 the heirs of R. Q. Lee, being desirous of terminating the administration and saving the expenses incident thereto, and evidently expecting to borrow enough money to pay the debts reported paid, appointed Guy Dabney (then administrator of the Lee estate) as their “true and - lawful trustee and attorney-in-fact.” (There is no intimation in the record that Dabney profited by the false recital of payment above referred to. The record, including the appointment of Dabney as trustee, indicates said recital was made solely for the purpose of removing the estate from the control of the probate court and to save the expense of a court administration, and was done for the benefit of the Lees.) The instrument authorized Dabney, for said heirs, and in their “names, places and stead, to bargain, sell, deliver, assign, convey any and all property regardless of where situated, that has been formerly owned by R. Q. Lee and which constitutes a part of the estate of R. Q. Lee, it being the intention of this conveyance to give to the said Guy Dabney each and every right to do any and all things with said estate or any part thereof that we could do if acting for ourselves, hereby giving and granting unto the said Guy Dabney the right to borrow money and execute proper notes or bonds to insure the repayment of same, and to hypothecate, mortgage trust deed, or in any manner that he may deem proper to encumber said property for the purpose of securing such indebtedness * * * and to incur such necessary expense in the management, control, operation cmd preservation of said estate as he may deem advisable * * The trustee was expressly authorized to execute notes or renewals thereof evidencing the indebtedness “remaining unpaid upon the close of the administration” to the Cisco Banking Company, shown in the final account of. the administrator to have been paid. The instrument further recited: “The said Guy Dabney shall as trustee for us and for the creditors of said estate remaining unpaid manage, control, rent, lease or dispose of said estate or any part thereof in such manner, and at such time to such persons and for such consideration as he may deem proper * * The instrument then recited that when the indebtedness owing to the Cisco Banking Company was paid the trustee should re-convey to the heirs executing the instrument “such part of said property as shall remain undisposed of but subject to the liens against said property now existing cmd subject to such other liens * * * as may be made by the said Guy Dabney as trustee.” The instrument recited that any sales, leases or encumbrances made by the trustee should be made at private sale “as fully and to all intent as effective as we could do if personally present and acting for ourselves.” The instrument provided for a monthly salary for the trustee. It provided for a successor for the trustee. It further recited: “The provisions of this agreement shall be binding on us, our heirs and assigns, shall be irrevocable * * * until such time as the indebtedness or any extension thereof now ozving by the said estate of R. Q. Lee shall have been paid.” (Italics ours.)
Before March 14, 1932, the Cisco Banking Company (a partnership) failed. Mrs. Owen, the heirs of R. Q. Lee, deceased, Guy Dabney, and many others, constituted the stockholders of said bank. For the purposes of paying off the depositors
November 21, 1939, Dabney executed a note payable to Mrs. Owen for $1,729.30. This note on its face showed to be a renewal and extension of the note dated December 22, 1928. It was signed “R. Q. Lee Estate by Guy Dabney, Trustee.”
On May 6, 1940, Mrs. Owen instituted this suit against R. Quincey Lee, and others, making as defendants therein the heirs of R. Q. Lee and Guy Dabney, individually and as trustee. In her amended petition plaintiff alleged the foregoing facts. She alleged the execution of the note for $1,009.35 by R. Q. Lee on December 22, 1928; that R. Q. Lee died and Guy Dabney was appointed and qualified as administrator of his estate; that a claim on her first note was allowed by said administrator and approved by the probate court, and facts showing a valid judgment in her favor against said estate for the amount then owing on said first note. The plaintiff further alleged that Dabney, the administrator, filed his account for final settlement and that in said final account the administrator falsely showed, without her knowledge, that he had paid plaintiff’s claim against the estate; that the administrator’s final account was approved, the estate closed and the administrator discharged on August 24, 1931, and that the property of the Lee estate passed into the hands of the Lee heirs and trustee. Plaintiff alleged that the portion of the probate proceedings which showed the payment of plaintiff’s claim constituted an “improper administration”; that the record showing payment was false and should be set aside. That it was known to defendants that the estate had not been fully administered and defendants “planned together * * * to avoid a full and faithful administration of said property, and to resort to a plan and scheme less burdensome to the estate * * * with full knowledge that said indebtedness due this plaintiff * * * and other people had not been paid, and to effectuate the plan * * * they reported * * * the pay
Upon a trial to the court Mrs. Owen introduced evidence in support of said allegations. The court entered judgment for plaintiff to the effect that the estate of R. Q. Lee, deceased, was indebted to plaintiff in the amount of principal, interest and attorney’s fees due on the second note, to-wit, $2,074.70, and for foreclosure of a lien against the real estate in the hands of the defendants (describing it) as the heirs of R. Q. Lee, deceased, and ordering its sale to satisfy plaintiff’s debt. The defendants, Dabney excepted, have appealed.
The instrument appointing Dab-ney as trustee and attorney-in-fact for the heirs of R. Q. Lee and the instrument appointing Wright as trustee are too lengthy to set out in this opinion. We think it is unnecessary to discuss their provisions further than has already been done. We are of the opinion the appointment of Dabney as trustee and attorney-in-fact for the heirs of R. Q. Lee, simultaneously with his premature discharge as administrator, was sufficient to authorize Dabney to execute the second note and supports the judgment for debt and foreclosing plaintiff’s lien against the land in the heirs’ possession, which land was acquired by them as the heirs of R. Q. Lee, deceased. We are further of the opinion that the appointment of F. D. Wright, trustee, did not as a matter of law terminate the authority of Dab-ney as trustee and attorney-in-fact. The instrument executed by the Lee heirs appointing Dabney as their trustee and attorney-in-fact was by its terms irrevocable. At least, it was not conclusively shown that the powers conveyed by that instrument had terminated when Dabney executed the renewal note.
We think the judgment establishing plaintiff’s debt and foreclosing a lien against the land in the possession of the heirs is correct for another reason. Article 3315 provides: “Any person interested in an estate may, at any time before any character of proceeding is decided upon by the court, file opposition thereto in writing, and shall be entitled to process for witnesses and evidence, and to be heard upon such opposition as in other suits.” If Mrs. Owen was not a “person interested in an, estate” within the meaning of those words,, as used in said statute, she had no right
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.