In re Jones' Estate

On the 12th of January, 1871, letters testamentary were issued to the appellant, Mary E. Gulick, and she took possession of the property of the estate as executrix of the decedent. By the will the petitioners, who are the grandchildren of the testator, ■are entitled to the residuary estate after the termination of life estates in certain legatees of whom Mrs. Gulick, the executrix, is the last survivor. The petition states that Mrs. Gulick has never filed her accounts as executrix, and such facts are alleged as show it to be proper that an accounting should be ordered. Upon the filing of this petition the surrogate issued a citation returnable on the 9th of January, 1900, directed to Mrs. Gulick, to show cause why her accounts as such executrix should not be filed and judicially settled. On the return day of the citation Mrs. Gulick filed her answer. It denied no part of the petition except the allegation that she had disposed of and appropriated to her own individual use a large amount, if not all, of the personal property which had come into her hands as executrix. It alleged, however, that on the 28th of April, 1873, she had filed her account of her proceedings as executrix with the vouchers in support of it, but it did not .allege that any judicial settlement had ever been had, or any decree entered. She pleaded in her answer the statute of limitations. Upon the petition and answer the surrogate made an order requiring Mrs. Gulick to render and file her account as executrix, and procure it to be judicially settled. From this order this appeal is taken, and the only question is whether the statute of limitations has run against the petitioners so

The judgment must therefore be affirmed, with costs to the respondents.

PATTERSON and HATCH, JJ., concur. VAN BRUNT, P. J., concurs in result.

(dissenting.) I do not concur in the affirmance of this decree. This proceeding was instituted by a citation issued in the surrogate’s court requiring the appellant to show cause'why she should not make, render, and file a sworn account as executrix of the last will and testament of Isaac F. Jones, deceased, based upon a petition of one Millie A. Jones and Mary E. Gulick, which alleges that the petitioners were granddaughters of the said Isaac F. Jones, deceased, who died in or about the year 1870, leaving a last will and testament, by the terms of which the petitioners were entitled to all the residuary estate of the deceased, both real and personal, subject to a life estate of Mary Ann Jones (wife of decedent) and Mary Elizabeth Gulick, née Jones (a daughter of decedent); that the said Mary Ann Jones is now deceased, and the said life estate is now enjoyed by the survivor, Mary Elizabeth G-ulick, as is provided in said will; that letters testamentary on the estate of the said deceased were granted by the surrogate of the city and county of New York to the said Mary Elizabeth Jones—now Gulick—on the 12-th day of January, 1871; that the said Isaac F. Jones left at the time of his death certain real estate situated in the city and county of New York, and certain personal property; that the said executrix has disposed of and appropriated to her own individual use a large amount, if not all, of the personal property which came to her as executrix aforesaid. Mary E. Gulick answered this petition, alleging that on the 28th day of April, 1873, she filed her account of proceedings as executrix, together with the vouchers in support thereof; that this proceeding was commenced, and the acts of this respondent, if any, complained of in said petition, occurred not only after the expiration of seven years from the grant of letters to this respondent, but after the expiration of upwards of twenty years from such grant of letters; and denying the allegation of the petition that she had appropriated to her own individual use the property which came to her as executrix; and prays that the proceedings may be dismissed. Upon this petition and answer the surrogate granted the order requiring the executrix to account, and from that order this appeal is taken.

“The trust intended never having gone into operation or had a legal existence, there never was any technical trust in favor of the plaintiffs, and no relation of trustee and cestui que trust of that character between the plaintiffs and the defendants. The relation was simply that of executor and legatee, and the trust was of that character only. The right of the plaintiffs to the half of the contemplated fund, was a vested right from the beginning, or, in any event, at the death of the widow; and an action could unquestionably have been maintained therefor immediately upon the expiration of the year after the granting of letters testamentary. If an action could have been maintained in the nature of a legal action to recover the legacy bequeathed, the right of action is barred by statute, as more than six years had elapsed since the expiration of the year before this action was commenced.”

There being thus no trust relation, the right of the petitioners to require the executrix to account depended solely upon her position as a legatee under the will of the decedent. That right accrued at the latest 18 months after the issue of letters testamentary, and it would seem that, if an action had been brought for an accounting in the supreme court as executrix, it would have been barred by the 10-year statute of limitations, and, as the same rule as to limitations applied to special proceedings in the surrogate’s court for an accounting, the 10-year statute of limitations applied. In re Rogers’ Estate, supra. Upon the conceded facts these petitioners are not entitled to the present possession of either the real or personal property of the decedent. Under the will of the decedent the appellant was entitled, as life tenant; to the possession of the real estate for life, and to the possession, with or without security, of the personal property during her life. In Re Camp, 126 N. Y. 377 , 27 N. E. 799 , it appeared that Camp, the petitioner in that proceeding, had received the amount of the award for certain real estate in condemnation proceedings which had been the property of his wife, and in which he had an estate for life as tenant by the curtesy. He had been appointed guardian of his children, and as such had received the award made for the property. He subsequently invested the amount received in his business, in which it was totally lost. Subsequently his children presented a petition to the surrogate to require him to account as guardian. Upon such an accounting the facts before stated appeared. The surrogate held that the guardian was liable to account for the amount, but that he was entitled to be credited as against that sum with the value of his life interest on the 18th of February, 1868, and the value of such life interest in the share of the petitioner was computed by the 27orthampton tables and the rules then in force, and the surrogate gave judgment against the guardian for the amount that he had received, less such life interest. The general term of the supreme court modified the said judgment so as to charge the guardian with the full sum received by him, with interest from the time he received it, and, as so modified, affirmed the decree of the surrogate. Upon an appeal to the court of appeals it was held that the appellant was entitled to the fund for life, and that he held the same in that capacity, but also held the fund as guardian of the infant under his appointment as such, and his receipt of the money in that capacity. The court there said:

“It appears, however, that the appellant has in truth lost the fund which he received, and that he is unable to repay the same, having used it in his business, in which he lost heavily, and which he was finally compelled to aban

don, and the appellant may probably fairly be regarded as an insolvent. What order may be made in such a case depends upon the question of the extent of the jurisdiction of the surrogate, which I shall discuss later on.”

It was also held that:

“The guardian has obtained possession of the fund as guardian, and he deals with it, not alone in his own right as life tenant in this case, but he also deals with it as the property of others confided to his care. In this sense he occupies the position of a trustee so far as to prevent the running of any statute of limitation in his favor regarding the property intrusted to him.” That the surrogate “has no power in such case to decree the payment by the guardian to the ward, even if the fund remained in the guardian’s hands; and it is difficult to see how he obtains any greater right in the case because it appears that the guardian has lost the money. Having no right to order its payment to the ward if the guardian still had it, no such power arises from the fact that the guardian has it not. The surrogate exercises only such jurisdiction as has been specially conferred by statute, together with those incidental powers which may be requisite to carry out such jurisdiction. * * * Payment, in a proper case, is part of an accounting; and where a surrogate has power to order an accounting he has power to decree a payment of whatever sum is found due and then payable to the ward. But the difficulty here is that the ward is not entitled to payment at present, and an order in regard to the fund, directing its payment to some third party or into court, would not be one which naturally grows out of a power to direct an accounting, but could rest only upon a power to see that a fund once rightfully in. the hands of a guardian, and lost by him, should be in some way made good before the time arrived when it would become payable to the ward, and during the time when the use of it would belong to the party who had in truth lost it. I do not think this power comes under any legitimate exercise of the power to decree an accounting. The surrogate has no general jurisdiction over a guardian as a trustee. That power remains in the court of chancery or in its successor, the supreme court.”

The power of a court of equity is then discussed, but the question as to what relief could be given was not determined. In that case the jurisdiction of the surrogate was based upon the fact that the life tenant was also guardian of the property, and as such guardian the surrogate had jurisdiction to compel him to account, but that the surrogate had no power to direct the payment of any money held by the life tenant, and thus his jurisdiction would solely exist in requiring an accounting as guardian; and, while the relation between a guardian and ward is of such a character as would prevent the statute of limitations from running in favor of the guardian, and would thus entitle the ward to call upon the guardian at any time for an account, the surrogate would have no jurisdiction over property held by the life tenant as such. In this proceeding the surrogate’s court would have no jurisdiction to decree the payment of this sum to the remainder-men, and no jurisdiction to grant them any relief as to the fund. The life tenant held no property in trust for the petitioner. The remainder has vested in the remainder-men and they were entitled to institute proper proceedings to protect it, but as to such proceedings the surrogate had no jurisdiction. In re Camp, supra. In Be Van Dyke, 44 Hun, 394 , it was expressly held by the supreme court in the First department that a special proceeding before a surrogate was subject to section 414 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and that such proceeding to enforce an accounting must be commenced within six years after the right to require it shall have accrued. I think, therefore, that,