Hermann's Estate

Citations

• 226 Pa. 543
• 75 A. 731
• 1910 Pa. LEXIS 816

Syllabus

<p>Executors and administrators — Inventory—Ownership of property — ■ Jurisdiction of orphans’ court — Findings of fact.</p> <p>1. Presumably every item of property an executor has included in his inventory belongs to the estate, and for all such he must account. The inventory is an admission on his part that the property embraced in it came into his possession as a legal representative of the testator. If at testator’s death the property is shown to have been in his possession, or if for any other reason it is presumably his, a mere denial of ownership unsupported, will not oust the court of its jurisdiction, but the court may proceed with the investigation so far as to inform itself whether the denial is made in good faith and a substantial dispute exists.</p> <p>2. Where a son as the executor of his father includes in the inventory the stock and merchandise of a store, but in his account, and at the audit, claims that he was a partner in the merchandise and the stock and owned half of it, the orphans’ court has jurisdiction to determine the question of ownership; and if it finds as a fact from the admissions of the son and other competent testimony, that the son was a partner in the profits only, and not in the ownership of the stock and merchandise, such finding will not be reversed by the Supreme Court.</p> <p>3. Where a son who was the executor of his father, and who had an interest in the profits of his father’s business renews a current note to his father two weeks after the latter’s death, and the makers of the noto eight months after the testator’s death fail, resulting in a loss on the note, the son cannot be surcharged with the loss, if it appears that the note was the last of a long series of renewals by the testator himself, that at the time it was renewed the makers were in the best credit, were apparently solvent, and the accountant had no reason to antieijiate their failure.</p> <p>Executors and administrators — Misconduct—Compensation—Disallowance