Court Opinion

ID: 9624607
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:11:18.360286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:05:51.154691
License: Public Domain

Brailsford, Justice
(concurs in result).
I concur in the majority opinion which, in my view, does not rest upon a strict construction of Section 19-534, Code of 1962, nor exclude from the basis for computing commissions all except personal property reduced to the actual physical possession of a personal representative. Here, under the terms of the agreements between the testator and the respective brokers, the executor never had title nor actual or constructive possession of the stocks on which commissions were disallowed, nor had he any right to control their disposition. The brokers were not obligated to hold specific certificates of stock for testator in his lifetime, nor, even, to retain in their possession and control certificates for a sufficient number of shares to coyer his purchase orders. Upon testator’s death, the respective brokers were authorized to liquidate the margin accounts by selling all stocks held for the testator, applying the proceeds to amounts properly due them and remitting the net balance to the executor. Under this state of facts, it may plausibly be put forward that the true assets of the estate were choses in action against the brokers, rather than specific shares of stock. In any event, these stocks were never received by the executor nor paid away by him within any permissible construction of the relevant statute. Therefore, the claimed commissions were properly denied.