Lauridsen v. Lewis

Citations

• 50 Wash. 605
• 97 P. 663
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 793

Syllabus

<p>Appeal — Exceptions. Findings of fact to which no exceptions are taken are binding and will be liberally contraed.</p> <p>Executors and Administrators — Proceedings—Conclusiveness— Laches. A creditor of an estate having a preferred claim which was on presentation disallowed for want of funds, who took no appeal or proceedings to question the administrator’s sale of real estate for a nominal sum, or the administrator’s discharge on final accounting, until after the lapse of more than three years and then only to interpose his claim as a counterclaim to an action on account, is concluded by the probate proceedings, and cannot reopen the same for fraud which he might have discovered with reasonable diligence.</p> <p>Estoppel — Laches — Acquiescence in Proceedings ■— Findings— Construction — Sufficiency. Findings of fact, not excepted to, sufficiently show that a creditor of an estate was guilty of laches and is precluded from asserting fraud on the part of the administrator in disposing of property of which he was trustee of an express trust, where the findings recite that the sale by the administrator was made in good faith, and that the creditor had knowledge of facts that would lead a reasonably prudent man to the discovery of the fraud, if there was any, and did not use ordinary diligence, but acquiesced in probate proceedings and slept on his rights for an unreasonable time; as findings are to be liberally construed and objection to them as conclusions should be raised below by taking exceptions.</p>