Case Name: Patrick H. Desmond vs. Michael J. Fisher & others
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1890-11-26
Citations: 152 Mass. 521
Docket Number: 
Parties: Patrick H. Desmond vs. Michael J. Fisher & others.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 152
Pages: 521–521

Head Matter:
Patrick H. Desmond vs. Michael J. Fisher & others.
Middlesex.
November 19, 1890.
November 26, 1890.
Present: Field, C. J., Devens, W. Allen, Holmes, & Morton, JJ.
Executor — Bond of Indemnity.
If an executor hands over to the residuary legatee the residue of an estate, consisting in part of the proceeds of a sale, under license of the Probate Court, of land in which the interest of such legatee is under attachment in a suit against him, and afterwards is compelled to satisfy a judgment rendered therein against the legatee, the latter is not answerable therefor upon a bond given by him to indemnify the executor from all debts “ due from the estate.”
Contract against the principal and sureties on a bond to indemnify the plaintiff, as executor of the will of Ann J. Lichtear, from debts “ due from the estate.” The case was submitted to the Superior Court, and, after judgment for the defendants, to this court, on appeal, on agreed facts, which, so far as material, appear in the opinion.
A. V. Lynde f W. P. Harding, for the plaintiff.
J. H. Butler, for the defendants.

Opinion:
Holmes, J.
The plaintiff, being the executor of the will of Ann J. Lichtear, paid over to the defendant Fisher, her residuary devisee and legatee, three hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty-four cents, the amount of the residue, taking back from him the bond in suit. A part of this residue was the proceeds of land which the plaintiff had sold by license of the Probate Court. Before the sale, Fisher's interest in the land had been attached in a suit against him, upon which a judgment was after-wards recovered. After the payment by the plaintiff to Fisher, the plaintiff was compelled to pay the amount of this judgment, we presume upon the doctrine of Wiggin v. Heywood, 118 Mass. 514, and Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Caldwell, 141 Mass. 489. The present suit is to recover indemnity for this payment. But the suit is brought upon the bond alone, the condition of which is only to indemnify the plaintiff from debts "due from the .estate" of Ann J. Lichtear. We cannot extend this condition by construction or conjecture so as to make it cover a debt due from the defendant Fisher. Judgment for the defendants.