Court Opinion

ID: 9760314
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:47:47.194446+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:10.802576
License: Public Domain

STORCKMAN, Judge
(dissenting).
In North v. Hawkinson, Mo., 324 S.W.2d 733, 743, the question presented was whether the nonclaim provisions of the new probate code “were intended to apply to an action in equity filed in the circuit court against the executor of a probate estate-more than nine months after the first publication of letters testamentary.” We held that the action filed out of time was barred *680because the nonclaim provisions had the legal effect of statutes of limitations and superseded the general statute which would have otherwise been applicable in that case. In the present case the action was instituted and service was obtained upon the defendant-administratrix within nine months after the first publication of notice of letters of administration. The deficiency consists of the plaintiff’s failure to file notice of the institution of the action in the probate court within the nine-month period as provided in section 473.360, subd. 2, RSMo 1949, as amended (Cum.Supp. 1957). I believe this factual difference compels a different result than that reached in the North case.
William Dee Organ, the defendant’s intestate, and John Calvert Coulter and Esther Coulter, parents of the plaintiff’s wards, died on September 1, 1956, as a result of a collision of motor vehicles. The defendant-administratrix was 'appointed on October 8, 1956, and the first publication of notice of letters was on October 11, 1956. Thirty days thereafter this wrongful death action was instituted in the circuit court and the defendant was served with summons on November 23, 1956, all well within the nine-month period after the first publication of notice of letters. In her answer filed on January 5, 1957, the defendant admitted certain averments of plaintiff’s petition and denied others; she pleaded affirmatively contributory negligence but said nothing about notice of suit not having been filed in the probate court. The cause remained in this condition until October 16, 1957, more than a year after the first publication of letters, when the defendant filed her motion to dismiss. This was done, so far as it appears from the record, without obtaining leave and without withdrawing the answer on file.
The motion to dismiss alleged that the wrongful death action was barred under the provisions of sections 473.360, 473.363, and 473.367 because the plaintiff “failed and refused1 to file any claim in the Probate Court of Jackson County, Missouri, at Kansas City, against defendant or the estate of said Warren Dee Organ, deceased, within nine months after the aforesaid first publication of Letters of Administration Granted, or to file a copy of the process or summons issued in this cause to defendant herein and the return of service thereof in the Probate Court of Jackson County, Missouri,” within the nine months after the first publication of notice of letters of administration. At the hearing on the motion the entire probate court file, as well as other evidence, was adduced. The defendant’s motion to dismiss was sustained and the petition was dismissed at plaintiff’s cost on December 26, 1957. This appeal was taken on the following day.
It appears that the application of the nonclaim provisions to the wrongful death act, which itself contains a special statute of limitations, presents insurmountable difficulties. Assuming, however, the applicability of the nonclaim statutes, I believe that principles of waiver and estoppel prevent the defendant from relying upon the nonclaim provisions in the circumstances of this case. Since this is a dissenting opinion, we will discuss all three of these questions, first the .related questions of waiver and estoppel.
The pertinent provisions of the statutes relied on by the defendant need to be carefully noted. Section 473.363 has to do with actions pending against a person at the time of his death and need not be further considered. Section 473.367 pertains to actions commenced against an executor or administrator after the death of the decedent and provides that such an action “is considered a claim duly filed against the estate from the time of serving the original process on the executor or administrator and the filing of a copy of the process and return of service thereof in the probate court.” This section appears to contemplate that a copy of the process and return *681of service shall be filed in probate court in order to constitute the action “a claim duly filed against the estate”, but does not limit the time for filing. However, section 473.-360, subd. 2 provides that all actions against the estate of a decedent person filed under section 473.367 “shall be barred unless notice of the * * * institution thereof is filed in the probate court within nine months after the first published notice of letters.” The latter provision does not spell out what the notice shall contain.
If we assume that the notice consists of “a copy of the process and return of service thereof”, necessary prerequisites are (1) the institution of an action and (2) service of process upon the executor or administrator. These two preliminary elements, as well as the notice, were missing in the North case. The narrower question presently before us is whether this notice can be waived and the defendant be estopped from relying upon the failure to file it.
If the failure to file the notice in probate court had the effect as defendant claims of ripening into a bar under the statute of non-claim at the end of nine months from the first publication of notice of letters, then its omission must have had some legal effect which the defendant could have taken advantage of during the pendency of the action prior to the expiration of the nine-month period. Otherwise, if the action had been brought in a jurisdiction where it could have been tried and disposed of within the nine-month period, the defendant would have been unable to use that fact as a defense to the maintenance of the action. We do not think that the defendant was in this situation. Section 473.367 does not purport to bar the claim but does provide that an action instituted does not have the status of a claim “duly filed against the estate” until the required notice is filed in the probate court. This section appears to have been intended to cover the period of time prior to the expiration of the nine-month period. Thus, the filing of the notice was in the nature of a condition precedent to the maintenance of the action, the nonperformance of which was a ground for the abatement or suspension of the action until the notice was filed or the action was barred by reason of the plaintiff’s refusal to do so. 1 C.J.S. Abatement and Revival § 86, p. 126. (Incidentally, there is no showing in the record that the plaintiff refused to file the notice, as charged in the motion to dismiss.)
Joyce v. Sauk County, 206 Wis. 202, 239 N.W. 439, involved a statute providing that no action should be brought or maintained against a county unless the claim had first been presented to the county board. It was held that the failure to file a claim in such a situation was a matter that might be taken advantage of by a plea in abatement. 239 N.W. 441-442 [4], Our inquiry then is whether the failure to file notice in probate court was a matter which the defendant should have pleaded and was waived by her failure to do so.
Since this action was instituted in the circuit court, the pleadings must be in accordance with the Civil Code which requires a party pleading to a preceding pleading to set forth affirmatively, inter alia, the statute of limitations “and any other matter constituting an avoidance or affirmative defense.” Laws 1943, p. 353, §§ 2 and 40; sections 506.010 and 509.090. Even where a claim is pending in probate court if a defendant chooses to file an answer, it should contain all the defenses intended to be relied upon. Sutton v. Libby, Mo.App, 201 S.W. 615.
Section 509.170 provides that a denial of the performance of a condition precedent shall be made specifically and with particularity. Section 509.290 sets out a number of specific objections which may be raised by motion and also provides for “other matters”.
Section 509.330 requires that all motions shall be made within the time allowed for responding to the opposing party’s pleading or, if no responsive pleading is permitted, then within twenty days after the service of the last pleading. After providing for the consolidation of motions, section 509.340 *682States: “A party waives all objections and other matters then available to him by motion by failure to assert the same by motion ■within the time limited by section 509.330, ■except failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or failure to state a legal defense to a claim, and except lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter.”
Section 509.400 provides that all defenses and objections for which there is no provision for raising by motion shall be raised in the responsive pleading and further provides that: “If a responsive pleading is required all defenses or objections not raised therein are waived, except failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, or failure to state a legal defense to a claim, and, except lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter.”
During the nine-month period, the failure ⅜> file the notice, considered as a defense to •the maintenance of the suit, is similar in principle to lack of jurisdiction over the person or improper venue mentioned in section 509.290 and should be considered as one of the “other matters” referred to in that section which “may be raised by motion whether or not the same may appear from the pleadings”. If not raised by . a motion, then certainly the omission to file .is an “other matter constituting an avoidance or affirmative defense”, section 509.-'090, or falls within this provision of section 509.400: “All defenses and objections for which there is no provision for the raising •of the same by motion shall be raised in the responsive pleading if one is permitted.” 'The whole purpose of the pleading provi•sions of the Civil Code seems to be to re■quire affirmative pleading of matters where the issues are not completely made by the admission or denial of the opposite parties pleading. We know of no special set of .rules applying to executors or administrators as parties litigant in the circuit court which permits them to conceal where others must reveal. Section 473.370, subd. 1.
I would hold that where an action is instituted against an estate in the circuit court and service of process is obtained within nine months after the first publication of notice of letters, but notice thereof is not promptly or timely filed in the probate court, such omission or failure is a matter which the defendant-administrator must raise by motion or plead in his answer and, if he fails to take advantage of his ■right and duty to plead the matter at the proper time, he will be deemed to have waived it as a ground of defense or objection. Sections 509.340 and 509.400.
Section 472.130 of our probate code provides : “Any person legally competent may in person or by attorney waive in writing any notice required by this code or by rule or order of court. An executor or administrator may make waiver either in person or by attorney.” I consider this to be not inconsistent with the pleading provisions of the Civil Code. If a writing was necessary, it was provided by the defendant’s answer and its legal effect under the Civil Code. See also State ex rel. Kansas City v. Harris, 357 Mo. 1166, 212 S.W.2d 733, 735 [4], holding that a question of abatement, such as another action pending, should be raised by answer and is a matter that is waived if not pleaded.
If the right to plead the lack of notice as a defense to the maintenance of the action during the nine-month period was also a duty under our pleading statutes and was waived by defendant’s failure to raise it at the proper time, then it would appear most unfair and inequitable to permit the defendant to revive the matter and use it as a predicate for a plea in bar after the expiration of the nine-month period. This premise leads us into the consideration of estoppel. See 53 C.J.S. Limitations of Actions § 25, p. 962, and 31 C.J.S. Estoppel § 61 b, p. 245.
Many of the elements noted in the discussion of waiver enter into the consideration of estoppel and will not be repeated. However, there are additional facts, developed at the hearing on the motion to dismiss, which should be noted in connection *683with the issue of estoppel. The records of the probate court show that it was only-after the public administrator of Jackson County filed his petition that Helen Delores Organ, a sister of the decedent, applied for letters of administration. Other brothers and sisters of the deceased assigned to the defendant-administratrix all their rights, titles and interests as heirs and distributees of the estate. The inventory and the semiannual settlement show the value of the estate to be $125, consisting of clothing and personal effects $75, and the salvage value of a Buick automobile $50. There is an order finding no inheritance tax due. As of the date of the hearing on the motion to dismiss on December 26, 1957, no claims had been filed against the estate other than the notice of the present suit filed on November 18, 1957, which was after the filing of defendant’s motion to dismiss. The firm of attorneys who represent the defendant in the wrongful death action also represent her as administratrix of the probate estate and one of the partners signed as surety on her $100 bond. There was also evidence at the hearing that the same firm of attorneys represented the State Farm Mutual Insurance Company and that the insurance company was “interested in the defense” of the wrongful death action.
In Sugent v. Arnold’s Estate, 340 Mo. 603, 101 S.W.2d 715, the contention was made that the respondent was estopped from invoking the statute of limitations and this court stated at loe. cit. 718 [10] of 101 S.W.2d: “The rule of law by which this contention should be determined is well stated in 9 Ann.Cas. 755, as follows: ‘It is a well settled rule that a defendant who has not expressly waived the defense of the Statute of Limitations may be estopped by his conduct from setting up the statute where, his conduct, though not fraudulent, has nevertheless induced the plaintiff to delay bringing suit until after the expiration of the statutory period.’ ” The doctrine of estoppel, in avoidance of a statute of limitations, is generally recognized although it is applied with caution. 53 C.J.S. Limitations of Actions § 25, p. 962.
The Supreme Court of the United States-had occasion to consider this subject matter recently in Glus v. Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, 359 U.S. 231, 79 S.Ct. 760,. 762, 3 L.Ed.2d 770. This was an action under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act to' recover damages for an industrial disease-. The act provided a period of limitation of three years from the day the cause of action accrued, but the plaintiff claimed that the defendant was estopped from raising this limitation because it had induced the delay by representing to the petitioner that he had seven years within which to sue. The court held that the question of estoppel was sufficiently pleaded and reversed the judgment dismissing the action. In the course of the opinion, it is stated: “To decide the case we need look no further than the maxim that no man may take advantage of his own wrong. Deeply rooted in our jurisprudence this principle has been applied in many diverse classes of cases by both law and equity courts and has frequently been employed to bar inequitable reliance on statutes of limitations.” And then again: “We have been shown nothing in the language or history of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act to indicate that this principle of law, older than the country itself, was not to apply in suits arising under that statute. * * Despite the delay in filing his suit petitioner is entitled to have his cause tried on the merits if he can prove that respondent’s-responsible agents, agents with some authority in the particular matter, conducted, themselves in such a way that petitioner was justifiably misled- into a good-faith belief that he could begin his action at anytime within seven years after it had accrued.”
Albert v. Patterson, 172 Mich. 635, 138'-N.W. 220, 222, involved a petition for leave-to issue an execution on a judgment about, to be barred by a ten-year statute of limitation. The matter was argued and takera under advisement and the trial court would *684have granted the petition in time to avoid the bar of the statute except that defendant’s counsel obtained an ex parte order for leave to file a bill of review. The order should not have been granted, but it had the effect of staying the petition for execution until the period of limitation had run. The Supreme Court of Michigan held that the defendant was estopped from pleading the statute of limitations against the enforcement of the execution because "the circuit judge was misled, and lulled into inaction upon the petition, by the irregular practice of defendants’ solicitor.” The court further stated it was no answer that the plaintiff had another remedy by which she could have sued at law on the decree.
The case of In re Fitzgerald’s Estate, 252 Pa. 568, 97 A. 935, was one in which a judgment for personal injuries was rendered against a publishing company which had never completed its incorporation so that the publishing plant in fact belonged to the estate of a decedent. The true fact of the defendant’s status, however, was unknown to the plaintiff until after the statute of limitations had run in favor of the estate. The court held the estate was es-topped to take advantage of the bar of the statute stating, 97 A. at page 937: “In the present case the Fitzgerald Estate, the sole owner of the business of the Item Publishing Company, defended against appellants’ claim on its merits, sued the casualty company to recover the judgment obtained against it, transacted business at all times in the name of the Item Publishing Company, under which it was sued, and made no objection for want of proper party during the trial and-until after the statute of limitations had run. Under the circumstances it would be gross injustice to permit such defense to be raised at this time in order to escape liability.”
I agree with the majority opinion that the fact there was insurance on the liability of William Dee Organ (or Warren Dee Organ as the name appears in most places in the probate court files) does not warrant our treating this case as one in legal effect against the insurance company and thereby disregarding the statutory requirements with respect to the institution and maintenance of an action against the estate of a decedent. However, we are not required to “stick in the bark” and ignore the underlying facts connected with the appointment of the administratrix and the handling of the affairs of the estate and the heirs and dis-tributees if they have a bearing on the failure to plead the lack of notice and hence on the issue of estoppel. We believe some of these record facts do have an important bearing.
First the assets of the estate were worth at most $125. After payment of expenses of administration, especially if attorney fees were charged, there would be hardly anything left as an incentive for an heir or distributee to conduct the administration. On the alternative order appointing Helen Delores Organ as administratrix, which was signed by the probate judge, there was this handwritten notation: “No letters here, or like it, to issue unless $25.00 cost deposit paid.” Except for the wrongful death action in tire offing, there was no occasion for a complete administration. The meager assets of the estate might have been more readily and economically applied to the expenses of Mr. Organ’s death and burial under an order of refusal of letters, section 473.090, subd. 1(2), or collected and disposed of as a small estate by his brothers and sisters as distributees, section 473.097.
Instead, the prior petition of the public administrator was sidetracked and letters were granted to Helen Delores Organ. On her original application for letters, the attorneys for the estate are shown as the same firm that are of record in this case and who represent the insurance interest. One of the members of the firm signed as surety on her bond of $100 as administratrix. As previously stated there are no creditors of the estate, other than this plaintiff, and the defendant is the sole heir and distributee by reason of the assignments executed by her brothers and sisters. The conclusion is in*685escapable that the insurance company has the primary interest in this administration, and that it was solely responsible for the conduct of the litigation and the withholding of the plea of failure to file the notice. Proceeds of the liability insurance would never become a part of the general assets of the estate, sections 379.195 and 379.200; and the inventory of the estate makes no such claim.
The justice of holding the defendant in this case to be estopped becomes more apparent when the nature of the act omitted is considered. The action had been instituted and the defendant served. The process and service upon the defendant were then public records. The defendant had no control over the institution of the action or directing service, but she did have access to the records of process and service. She had all the information that filing of the notice in probate court could have given her. If the notice required by sections 473.-367 and 473.360, subd. 2 has any reasonable basis, it must be to inform those interested in the estate, the creditors, heirs and dis-tributees, of the claims and demands being made upon the estate.
Actually there was no other person interested in the estate. There were no creditors and the heirs and distributees had all assigned their interests to the administra-trix, the defendant herein. Fairness and justice demand that the doctrine of estoppel be applied in the circumstances of this case and I would so hold. A more fitting case for its application can hardly be imagined.
Going to the question of whether the limitation provisions of the wrongful death act, section 537.080, as amended in 1955, are superseded by the nonclaim provisions of the new probate code, it appears to me that these provisions of the two acts are conflicting in some respects and cannot be harmonized by judicial construction.
Section 537.100 provides that every action instituted under section 537.080 “shall be commenced within one year after the cause of action shall accrue”. This section further provides that the time during which the defendant is absent from the state after the cause of action accrues shall not be counted as a part of the time limited for the commencement of the action, and if an action is timely brought and the plaintiff suffers a nonsuit, the plaintiff may commence a new action from time to time within a year after such nonsuit.
Unlike the form of statute in some states, where the personal representative has the sole right to bring the action, section 537.080 provides that the damages in a wrongful death action may be sued for and recovered: “(1) By the husband or wife of the deceased; or (2) If there be no husband or wife, or he or she fails to sue within six months after such' death, then by the minor child or children of the deceased, * * If there be no husband, wife, minor child or minor children, or if the deceased be an unmarried minor and there be no father or mother, suit may be instituted and recovery had by the administrator or executor of the deceased and the amount recovered shall be distributed according to the laws of descent.
As we have previously noted, section 473.360, subd. 2 provides that all actions instituted against an estate after the death of the deceased person, pursuant to section 473.367, shall be barred unless notice of the institution of the suit is filed in the probate court within nine months after the first published notice of letters.
Moore v. Stephens, 264 Ala. 86, 84 So.2d 752, held that the six months statute of non-claim applied to a wrongful death action brought against the estate of a decedent. However, the only person authorized to sue under the Alabama Wrongful Death Act, § 123, Title 7, Code of Alabama 1940, is the personal representative. The Alabama Act has nothing similar to the provision of the Missouri Act authorizing the action for wrongful death' to be brought within six months by the surviving spouse and, if the action is not appropriated by the spouse during such time, then the minor children *686shall have six months thereafter within which to sue for their parent’s death. This presents a conflict which, in my opinon, cannot he resolved by the courts but must be adjusted by the General Assembly if it is the legislative intent that the nonclaim statute shall apply. Some other statutes were amended so as to harmonize them with the nonclaim statutes. See sections 507.100, subd. 1(3) and 516.240.
It is true that we are not here faced with a case in the category mentioned since the parents of the plaintiff’s wards were both killed at the same time. However, the statute of nonclaim should have a uniform application. I do not think that we can say that it applies to all plaintiffs in wrongful death actions against an estate except where there is a surviving spouse and minor children.
We are concerned with determining the legislative intent but this is obviously a situation in which the General Assembly has not spoken. I cannot believe that this court has the right to say that three months shall be pared from the six months allotted to the surviving spouse, or the six months allowed the minor children for bringing suit, or that a month and a half should be taken from each in order to make the nine months nonclaim period applicable to the wrongful death act which carries its own special limitation of one year.
In State ex rel. Wright v. Carter, Mo., 319 S.W.2d 596, 599 [4], this court en banc stated: “We do not think it is a judicial function to read such an alteration or exception into a statute, especially one which is also ambiguous in other respects.” The courts are prohibited by the constitution from usurping the lawmakers’ function. Our construction of statutes should be reasonable and avoid unjust and absurd results. Laclede Gas Co. v. City of St. Louis, 363 Mo. 842, 253 S.W.2d 832, 835 [3]. Macon County v. Farmers’ Trust Co., 325 Mo. 784, 29 S.W.2d 1096, involved the short statute of limitation for the institution of suits against the commissioner of finance on an unproved claim against a bank of which the commissioner had taken possession. This court held that the cases to which the shortened period of limitation applied will not be extended by construction, stating at loc. cit. 1098 [3] of 29 S.W.2d: “While the rule in this state is that statutes of limitation are looked upon with favor, unless clearly unreasonable (Faris v. Moore, 256 Mo. 123, loc. cit. .132, 165 S.W. 311), yet it is also a well-known rule that a statute of limitations should not be applied to' cases not clearly within its provisions and its application should not be extended by construction.” In dealing with the limitation on a will contest, in the case of Gresham v. Talbott, 326 Mo. 517, 31 S.W.2d 766, 767 [1], this court stated: “The law favors the right of action rather than the right of limitation.”
In Turner v. Meek, 225 Ark. 744, 284 S.W.2d 848, the plaintiff sued an estate for wilful assault committed by the testator during his lifetime. The court held that the action was barred by the nonclaim statutes because a notice, similar to that required in Missouri, was not filed in probate court. However, the facts were not comparable to those in the present case and the Supreme Court of Arkansas did not consider the question of waiver or estoppel. It appears from the opinion, however, that the plaintiff suffered a nonsuit and was permitted to refile her complaint, a thing which apparently would not be permitted in this state if the nonclaim statute supersedes the special limitation provisions of the wrongful death act.
While I have serious doubts with respect to the application cf the nonclaim statute of limitations to an action brought under the wrongful death act, I do not think this needs to be expressly decided in this case. To me this factual situation presents a strong and compelling case for equitable estoppel and I would put the decision on that ground buttressed by the elements of waiver discussed.

. All italics within quotations aro supplied unless otherwise noted.