Doyle v. Langdon

Citations

• 80 Wash. 175
• 141 P. 352
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1290

Syllabus

<p>Executors and Administrators — Distribution — Vacation — Fraud—Evidence—Sufficiency. Fraud on the part of an administrator in securing final distribution of the whole estate to himself, as widower of the deceased, on the theory that the property was their community property, to the exclusion of the mother of the deceased, who claimed an interest in that the property was deceased’s separate estate, is not shown by clear and satisfactory evidence, from the fact that the administrator at first wrote a letter stating that the property would be distributed to them both as sole heirs, where the letter stated that the property was community property, and shortly after, long before distribution, both by letter and personally, he explained that he had been mistaken as to the rule of descent of community property, and claimed to be the sole heir, and such claim was unquestioned until after final distribution.</p> <p>Husband and Wife—Community Property — Commingled Funds. There was such a commingling of separate and community funds that the court cannot say that any part of the property acquired was the separate property of the wife, where, ten years before the wife’s death, certain proceeds of her separate real estate was deposited in a bank, and the husband from time to time, contributed from his earnings to the fund, from which was paid all their household expenses, as well as sums paid in the acquisition of property possessed by them at the time of the wife’s death.</p> <p>Appeal—Harmless Error—Evidence. The erroneous admission of evidence is harmless where the result of the cause would be unchanged were the evidence excluded.</p>