Cowgill v. Dinwiddie

Citations

• 98 Cal. 481
• 33 P. 439
• 1893 Cal. LEXIS 947

Syllabus

<p>Estates of Decedents—Bejeotion of Claim—Option of Claimant.—Where the executor or administrator of an estate to whom a claim is presented neglects to indorse his allowance or rejection thereon for more than ten days, it is optional with the claimant to deem the neglect equivalent to a rejection, but he need not so deem it unless he chooses.</p> <p>Id.—Election op Claimant after Tenth Day—Limitation of Action upon Claim—Soit as Evidence of Election and Notice.—A person having a claim against an estate, who has not elected to consider his claim rejected upon the tenth day after presentation, may subsequently thereto, and at any time before official action by the executor or administrator thereon, elect at his option to consider his claim as rejected, and may, under section 1498 of the Code of Civil Procedure, bring an action thereon within three months after notice of such election, and in the absence of other proof suit brought is conclusive evidence of such election and notice thereof.</p> <p>Id. —Conditions Precedent to Action—Bejeotion of Claim not Required. —No action can be maintained upon a claim until it is first presen ed, save in the excepted cases specified in section 1500 of the Code of Civil Procedure; hut the statute does not require that the executor or administrator must reject a claim before an action can be maintained upon it.</p> <p>Id.—Refusal to Allow Inspection of Bejected Claim—Bights of 0 aim-ant.—Where a claim was presented against an estate, and ihereafter. upon inquiry made of the executor’s attorneys, the attorney for the claimant was told that he might consider the claim rejected upon that day, but the attorneys for the executor refused to allow an inspection of the claim or to return it to the claimants, the fact that the claim was, in fact, marked rejected, as of a date prior thereto, could not constitute a rejection of the claim as of that date binding upon the claimant, and such apparent rejection may be disregarded by the claimant.