Case ID: nj-eq_14/html/0493-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Ordinary.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In the matter of the Application of Conrad Honnass to prosecute the bond of the Administrator of Aaron V. Parks, Deceased.
    A general creditor of an estate is a “ party grieved ’ ’ in the contemplation of the statute, which provides that if an administration bond shall become forfeited, it shall be lawful for the Ordinary to cause the same to be prosecuted at the request of any party grieved by such forfeiture. It is not necessary that he should have established his claim by a judgment.
    All that can properly be required is, that the creditor should show a prima fa,m case of indebtedness on the part of the estate, and of a forfeiture of the bond by the administrator.
    It is the duty of the Ordinary to see that the bond is not prosecuted at the instance of a stranger, or for the purposes of vexation or oppression. Beyond this no possible good can result from throwing obstacles in the way of enforcing a remedy upon the bond of the administrator.
    Conrad Honnass, by his petition duly verified, asks an order for leave to prosecute tlie bond of tlie administrator of Aaron Y. Parks, deceased. Tlie material facts set forth in the petition are, that the intestate died on the 5th of November, 1853; that letters of administration upon his estate were granted by the surrogate of Hunterdon to Cyrenius Wagner, who gave bond, as administrator, in the sum of $4600 ; that, on the 6th of September, 1854, the administrator was ordered by the Orphans Court to sell the real estate whereof the intestate died seized, and that he thereupon gave bond according to law in the sum of $3000 ; that the said real estate was sold for $820, the whole of which was received by the administrator ; that the administrator died on the 17th of March, 1857 ; that during his life he wholly neglected and refused to administer the goods, chattels, and credits of the intestate, and the moneys arising from the sale of said real estate according to law, or to make, or cause to be made, a just and true account of his administration within twelve calendar inonths from the date of said bond, or at any other time, and that the petitioner is a creditor of said estate.
    The application is resisted upon the ground that the petitioner is not a judgment creditor of the estate.
    
      Van Fleet, for the petitioner.
    
      G. A. Allen, contra, cited 1 Halst. Ch. 89; 1 Halst. 206; 1 Green’s Ch. 133; 5 Halst. 65.
    He further proposed to controvert the facts verified by the petition in regard to the indebtedness of the estate to the petitioner.
   The Ordinary.

The statute (Nix. Dig. 257, § 12) provides that in case any administration bond shall become forfeited, it shall be lawful for the Ordinary to cause the same to be prosecuted in any court of record at the request of any party grieved by such forfeiture. The facts stated in the petition show clearly a forfeiture of the bond by a breach of its conditions. A general creditor of the estate is a party grieved within the contemplation of the statute. It is not necessary that he should establish his claim by a judgment. No case has gone that length.. Greenside v. Henson, 3 Atk. 248, and The Archbishop of Canterbury v. House, Cowp. 140, are direct authorities the other way. The right of the creditor to sue the administration bond, and the nature of the redress to which he is entitled, is very clearly stated by Kirkpatrick, Ch. J., in Dickerson, Ordinary, v. Robinson, 1 Halst. 195.

In the matter of the administration bond of Webster, 1 Halst. Ch. R. 89, the Ordinary, while intimating that, as a general rule, the prosecution of the administration bond should not be ordered except at the instance of a judgment creditor, admits that the rule is not to be uniformly adhered to, and that much will rest in the discretion of the Ordinary. The case now presented comes directly within the case supposed, which would constitute an exception to the general rule.. The petitioner holds a note of the intestate, which was admitted by the administrator, and offers, therefore, the strongest prima facie evidence that he is a bona fide creditor and a party grieved within the contemplation of the statute. There was a great lapse of time between* the grant of letters of administration and the death, of the administrator without accounting. There has been a palpable conversion of the estate by the administrator to his own use, or a misappropriation of it, in violation of law.

Aside from these circumstances, all that can properly be required is that the creditor should show a prima facie case of indebtedness on the part of the estate, and of a forfeiture of the bond by the administrator. It is the duty of the Ordinary to see that the bond is not prosecuted at the instance of a stranger, or for the purposes of vexation or oppression. Beyond this no possible good could result from throwing obstacles in the way of enforcing a remedy upon the order.

The petitioner is entitled to the order upon his giving the usual security.