Malony v. Scanlan

Citations

• 53 Ill. 122

Syllabus

<p>1. Bequest to a creditor—rights of tJie creditor and of the estate. The mere making of a bequest to a creditor of the testator, of a sum of money equal to or greater than the debt, and which might, in the particular case, be regarded as a satisfaction of the debt, would not operate to defeat an allowance of the claim against the estate, to be paid in due course of administration with other debts in the same degree. Such a legacy must be paid, before it can be set up as a discharge of the debt.</p> <p>2. When, however, a creditor, to whom his debtor has made a bequest, equal to or greater than his debt, obtains an allowance and payment of his claim, and afterwards demands his legacy from the executor, the latter may then raise the question whether it was intended as a gift, independently of the payment of the debt, or merely as a satisfaction of the debt.</p> <p>8. Evidence—whether services rendered were to be paid for. Upon the presentation of a claim against an estate, for services rendered for the decedent, in his life time, the executor contended that the relations between the claimant and the deceased, the former being a member of the family of the latter as an adopted son, were such as precluded the idea that the services were to be paid for, and it was shown the claimant lived in the family of the deceased from the time he was seven years old until the testator died, a period of five years, was clothed, sent to school and worked : Held, it was competent for the executor to give in evidence the will of the testator, in which there was a bequest to the claimant, as tending to show the relations of the parties to each other. The bequest being in the nature of res gesteo, made before any dispute arose concerning the subject matter of the suit, was not open to the exception of having been possibly made for the purpose of making evidence in the case.</p>