Ward v. Magaha

Citations

• 71 Wash. 679
• 129 P. 395
• 1913 Wash. LEXIS 1387

Syllabus

<p>Executors and Administrators — Claims Against Estate — Presentation — Special Administrators — Powers-—“Debts.” Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 1420, authorizing the appointment of a special administrator under certain conditions “to collect and preserve the effects of the deceased,” §§ 1421, 1422, requiring that he account for all goods, chattels, “debts” and effects and collect and preserve all goods, chattels, and “debts,” § 1423, providing that his duties shall cease upon granting letters testamentary or of administration, and § 1424, providing that he shall not be liable to an action by any creditor of the deceased, the words “debts” includes only debts owing to the deceased; and the object being only to preserve the estate pending formal administration, and every provision of law relating to claims against the estate being elsewhere treated, a claim presented to and rejected by a special administrator is of no effect and insufficient to prevent the running of the statute of nonclaim, Id., § 1479, providing that no action shall be maintained on a claim against the estate unless it shall have been first presented to the executor or administrator, which is mandatory.</p> <p>Same — Claims—Failure to Present — Waiver—Objection—How Passed — Pleading. The presentment of a claim against an estate under the statute of nonclaim is not entirely a matter of abatement, but a fact essential to a cause of action thereon, so that objection that no claim was filed may he first raised during the progress of the trial by the objection that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.</p> <p>Same — Presentment—Waiver. An executor or administrator has no power to waive the statute of nonclaim, Rem. & Bal. Code, ■ § 1479, providing that no holder of a claim against an estate shall maintain an action thereon unless the claim shall have been first presented (Overruling Neis v. Farquharson, 9 Wash. 508).</p>