Glebke v. Wisconsin Valley Trust Co.
Glebke v. Wisconsin Valley Trust Co.
Opinion of the Court
August Glebke died leaving a will which was admitted to probate June 12, 1916, which gave to his wife Marie Glebke, all his real estate and personal property during life with privilege to use such part of the corpus as she might deem necessary for her support, with remainder to his three grandchildren, John, Charles, and Ralph Glebke, who are the plaintiffs herein, and who became twenty-one years of age on June 23, 1927, December 31, 1925, and May 2, 1923, respectively. At the testator’s death his property consisted of two parcels of real estate and a certificate of deposit for $850 payable to himself and his wife or either or the survivor of them. The wife was appointed executrix of the will. She used $150 of the certificate of deposit in paying the funeral expenses of her husband and took out a new certificate for $700 payable to herself. This she inventoried as part of her husband’s estate. The final order in the husband’s estate determined that the executrix was properly chargeable with $700 as- residue in her hands for distribution and assigned the same to her in accordance with the terms of the will, and provided that at her death the residue should be divided among the plaintiffs. This certificate of deposit was renewed from time to time by the widow. She used part of the fund for her support. Shortly before her death she had the certificate of deposit, then for $625, by its terms made payable to herself and her son Carl or either or the survivor of them, and this certificate was in her possession at the time of her death. Carl was insane, and shortly after the widow’s death in November, 1919, the Wisconsin Valley Trust Company
The trial court held that by inventorying the certificate as property of the estate and so treating it in her final account and permitting it to be adjudicated as such and as passing to her under the terms of the will the widow was estopped from thereafter asserting the contrary; and also held that as the widow not only appeared at the hearing upon which the judgment of the county court was entered and was the moving party in inducing that judgment, the adjudication that as executrix she had $700 subject to distribution, and that the plaintiffs were entitled to distribution of the portion thereof remaining at her death, was res judicata and precluded her and precludes all claiming under her from asserting rights inconsistent therewith.
However, the court held that the six-year statute of limitations applied and began to run against the plaintiffs’ action to recover the fund in 1919 when the trust company received the certificate; that the plaintiffs’ right to bring the action expired one year after they attained majority, and that this right as to the youngest expired in 1928; and that as the action was not begun until 1932 the plaintiffs’ action is barred. Secs. 330.19 and 330.33, Stats. Determination of the case only requires that we consider the ruling of the trial court as to the running of the statute of limitations.
The appellants claim that the widow was a trustee for them of the fund represented by the certificate of deposit; that the trust company upon receiving the fund became such a trustee ; that the statute of limitations does not commence to run against a trustee until there is a repudiation of the trust; and that there was no repudiation of the trust by the trust company until the demand was made upon it for the payment of the fund to the plaintiffs.
By the Court. — The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Glebke and others v. Wisconsin Valley Trust Company
- Status
- Published