In re Stone's Estate
In re Stone's Estate
Opinion of the Court
It appears from the record of this case that the property of this estate, as shown 'by the inventory and ap-praisement, was only of the value of $567.20. Section 4118, Comp. Laws Utah 1888, among other things, provides that, if it appears from the inventory that the value of the whole estate of a deceased person is less than the sum of $1,500, the court, upon giving certain notice therefor, and granting a hearing, and after the payment of certain expenses, in case the value is found to be less than that sum, shall, by a decree for that purpose, assign, for the use and support of the widow and minor children, the whole of the estate. The court in this case, in effect, decreed that a certain claim of the Ecclcs Lumber Company for rent, and for which it claimed a lien on certain personal property of the estate, was superior to' all other claims, by reason of a valid and subsisting lien, and, after ordering the claim to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of said personal property, assigned and set over the residue of the whole estate for the use and support of the widow and minor children. The two^ questions as to the claim of the Eccles Lumber Company, and as to the setting over of the whole estate for the use and support
The material question, and the one decisive in this case, is whether the Eccles Lumber Company had a valid and subsisting lien for rent on the personal property of the estate which was in the leased building occupied by the deceased in his lifetime. Counsel for the ¡appellant insist that the company had no valid lien, because the proceedings instituted by it to enforce such a lien were not commenced within the time provided by law. Section 1 of the act of March 8, 1894 (Sess. Laws, p. 123), reads as follows: “Lessors, except as hereinafter provided, shall have a lien for rent due upon all of the property of the lessee not exempt from execution, as long as the lessee shall occupy the leased premises, and for thirty days thereafter.” It will be noticed that by virtue of this statute the lien provided for exists during the time that the “lessee shall occupy the leased premises, and for thirty days thereafter.” The statute seems to contemplate an actual occupancy, limited to that of the lessee, and limits the existence of the lien to 30 days after such occupancy ceases. Therefore, at the expiration of 30 days from the day on which a lessee ceases, for any reason, to occupy such premises, the lien ceases to exist, and consequently to have any force or effect. In this case it is shown by the agreed statement of facts that W. S. Stone, the deceased, in his lifetime, as a lessor of the Eccles Lumber Company, from month to month,
Reference
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- IN RE STONE'S ESTATE
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- Published