Case Name: Matter of Jones' Estate
Court: New York Surrogate's Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1893-01
Citations: 2 Misc. 221
Docket Number: 
Parties: Matter of Jones’ Estate.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Miscellaneous Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 221–224

Head Matter:
Matter of Jones’ Estate.
(Surrogate's Court—Westchester County,
January, 1893.)
A surrogate has no j urisdiction to try and pass upon the validity of a claim due from the estate to a firm of which the executor is a member.
In such a case, the executor may pay the firm, and on filing a voucher therefor, ask credit for the amount on the accounting, at which time any interested party may question the propriety of its payment.
On the accounting in this matter, the executor presented, and proposed to prove, a claim belonging to the firm of Jones, Hall & Co., which consisted of an alleged balance of account against the testator, amounting to about $2,000. The executor was a member of the firm. The claim was contested by Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Gage, daughters of the deceased, and residuary legatees, and it was objected on their behalf that the surrogate had no jurisdiction to try it, as it was not a claim of the executor against the testator.
F. T. Lee, for executor.
W. Thompson, for contestants.

Opinion:
Coffin, S.
The executor claims a balance of account of $2,000 against the deceased, growing out of dealings and transactions between the latter and the copartnership firm of Jones, Hall & Co. That firm was composed of Henry Jones (the executor), Thomas Hall and William Edgar. The other members of the firm are interested in this claim. It is, therefore, a claim of the firm, and not of the executor, and is contested by the legatees, Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Gage. Much of the evidence taken, relates to items of the account, resulting in the balance claimed.
Hothing is better settled than that this court can try and determine the disputed claim of an executor or administrator on his accounting, and that he cannot so try and determine the disputed claims of other creditors. In the case of Shakespeare v. Markham, 72 N. Y. 400, it was held, before the adoption of the eighteenth chapter of the Code, under 2 Revised Statutes, section 33, that " this section must necessarily refer to all claims in which an executor is interested, and the circumstance that he is jointly interested in a demand, or owns a portion of that in which he has an interest by assignment, does not affect the authority of the surrogate to adjudicate in regard to it." There, he did own a portion of the claim, and had paid the other joint owners their shares, previous to the accounting, and thus became subrogated to their rights, and was regarded as their assignee. • Hence, it would seem that the dhctmm, " that where lie is jointly interested in a demand " the surrogate has jurisdiction to adjudicate it, may justly be regarded as obiter. I have great respect for the learning of the able jurist who delivered the opinion in that case, and have grave doubts as to whether he considered this immaterial point with the accustomed acumen displayed by him upon any material matter. Indeed, it is plain that his attention was given solely to the facts of that case upon this point, for he says, " as he " (the executor) " was entitled to have his interest determined, it does not deprive him of that right because he has procured a transfer of other rights." And again, in closing) upon this branch of the case, he says, " I am unable to discover any reason why the surrogate should not try and determine the ques- tion as to the claim of the appellant."
Let us see into what difficulties we might be led by following the (dictum referred to. A surrogate can only decree the payment to an executor of what he may find due to him. How, in this case, about $2,000 is claimed to be due from the deceased to three persons, composing the firm, one of them being the executor, and the others mere creditors. Shall the decree award the whole sum to the executor, to the exclusion of the other members of the firm, or shall he decree an equal division among the three? But, they may not be equally interested, and may differ among themselves as to their respective rights. Must this court then hear and adjudicate their respective interests, and so assume burdens that do not properly belong to it, and over which no statute gives it jurisdiction ?
The Revised Statutes, supra, provide that " no part of the property of the deceased shall be retained, by an executor or administrator in satisfaction of his debt or claim, until it shall have been proved to, and allowed by, the surrogate." The provision of the Code (§ 2739), leaving the above section unrepealed, is, that " upon a judicial settlement of the account of an executor or administrator, he may prove any debt owing to him by the decedent.
Where a contest arises between the accounting party and any of the other parties, respecting any property alleged to belong to the estate, but to which the accounting party lays claim, or respecting a debt alleged to be due by the accounting party to the decedent, or by the decedent to the accounting party, the contest must be tried and determined in the same manner as any other issue, arising in the Surrogate's Court." These provisions clearly contemplate a debt of which the executor or administrator is sole owner, or solely owes, and, if the former, when established, must be followed by a decree directing the payment or allowance thereof to hinn, and not to him and others. Had Hall and Edgar assigned their interest to the executor before these proceedings were commenced, then the case would have fallen within the principle decided in Shakespeare v. Markham, 72 N. Y. 400.
Surrogate Rollins, in the case of Matter of Eisner, 5 Dem. 383, recognized, without much apparent consideration, the validity of the dictum in the case above criticised, as applicable to every case where a claim of a firm, of which the executor is a member, is involved. To this I find myself unable to yield assent. It will not do to say there is no other mode provided by which such a claim may be determined. The doors of equitable jurisdiction of Superior Courts are wide enough to admit and then entertain and adjudicate such a claim. But the necessity of a resort to such a court may be readily obviated. The executor may pay the firm (he would not be likely to dispute its claim) and on filing a voucher-therefor ask credit for the amount on the accounting. He will not thus violate the statute which forbids him to retain property of the estate in satisfaction of Ms debt, and on such accounting, any interested party may cpiestion the propriety of the act of payment. He may show, for instance, that the claim of the firm was barred by the Statute of Limitations, or that the amount paid was more than was actually due. TIiq surrogate will not thus be trying what is known to the statute as a " disputed claim," which is one disputed by the executor, but simply testing his act in paying an alleged debt of the deceased, 'which is claimed not to be a proper charge against the estate.
The statute, as is well known, allows the executor to prove before the surrogate a debt due to him. This is not a debt due to him, and it is not an incident of such power which the surrogate may exercise, to allow the proving of a debt due to him and others. That would be to exercise a chief and not an incidental power.
The objection of the contestants is, therefore, sustained.