Commonwealth ex rel. Delaware County Trust v. Degitz

Citations

• 167 Pa. 400
• 31 A. 635
• 1895 Pa. LEXIS 919

Syllabus

<p>Principal and surety — Administrator's bond — Laches—Affidavit of defense.</p> <p>In an action by a guardian against the sureties on an administrator’s bond to recover money ordered by the orphans’ court to be paid over to the guardian, an affidavit of defense is insufficient which avers that the “ decree was had in favor of the wards of the plaintiff on June 9, 1892, and distribution of the fund in the hands of the administrator was duly ordered, but that deponent was informed neither by the administrator, nor any one in behalf of the minors that said fund had not been paid over to their representatives until the twenty-fifth day of April, 1894, when he received a note from plaintiff’s counsel, calling his attention to the same; that said administrator was solvent and able to have paid the amount found to have been in his hands for nearly two years afterwards, but that no steps were taken on behalf of the representatives of the minors to compel payment; that, had the distributees used ordinary diligence, or had they called the attention of the deponent to the default of the administrator within a reasonable time after said award, the claim in suit would have been recovered from said administrator.”</p>