Estate of Hughes

Citations

• 176 Pa. 387
• 35 A. 244
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 1088

Syllabus

<p>Findings of auditor — When not reversed.</p> <p>In a claim chiefly for domestic services against a decedent’s estate, where an auditor for distribution has found, on personal view and hearing of witnesses, that there was a contract to pay for the same, and the court below has approved the finding, the Supreme Court will not review that finding although the proof of the contract may not bo clear, and although the court would have been as well satisfied if the auditor had put the services in the class of those rendered voluntarily and without even implied contract basis, though with a hope or expectation of reward or gratuity.</p> <p>Decedents estate — Claim for domestic services — Presumption of payment at stated periods — Evidence.</p> <p>Domestic services are presumed to be paid for at stated periods according to the custom of the time and neighborhood, but this presumption may be rebutted by evidence of those familiar with the financial affairs of the decedent who are able to say that the claim had not been paid.</p> <p>Limitations — Declarations to remove bar of statute.</p> <p>Declarations of a decedent which do not identify the debt or fix the amount will not escape the bar of the statute of limitations, even although they amount to expressions of grateful intention to pay a definite sum.</p>