Hargrove v. Baskin

Citations

• 50 Miss. 194

Syllabus

<p>1. Chancery Practice — When Real Estate oe Decedent Liable to-be Sold. — When an administrator or executor ascertains the personal estate of a decedent to be insufficient, then he shall petition the court for a sale of the land. The heir or devisee must be made a party, and may ' contest the relief sought, by showing that there are no valid subsisting debts, or that there were once sufficient pez'sonal assets, which have been wasted by the executor or administrator, and legal remedies have been exhausted on his bond. Paine v. Pendleton, 82 Miss. R., 823.</p> <p>2. Same — Power of Administrator over it. — Immediately upon the death of the ancestor the real estate descends to the heir, and as against him the liability of the land to be sold for the decedent’s debts must be established in the mode pointed out by the statute. The administrator cannot interfere, nor has he any interest in or power over the land.</p> <p>3. Same — Power of Chancery Court. — The chancery court has not the power under its equity jurisdiction, to reach the real estate of a debtor, except upon the predicate that the creditor had an equity in the form of a charge or incumbrance. If the charge or equity is created by statute, with a mode of procedure clearly defined, that remedy must be pursued. The creditor by judgment against the personal representative, acquires a lien on the assets in his hands. As against the real estate, the judgment confers no greater privilege than the note or bond upon which it was founded.</p> <p>4. Power of Jhdoment Creditor a&ainst a Decedent’s Estate. — A creditor having judgment against a decedent’s estate, has not advanced a right to subject the land Nor is he aided by the fact that the final process against the personal assets has been fruitless. That is a creditor’s bill, proposing to withdraw the administration of the real assets from the statutory jurisdiction of the chancery court, to be dealt with under its general equity powers, which the law does not pe