Court Opinion

ID: 9809133
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:01:48.301912+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:25:07.689168
License: Public Domain

MerrimoN, C. J.,
dissenting: I am of opinion that the plaintiff’s cause of action is not barred by any statute of limitation. The intestate of the defendant was her guardian, a trustee of an express trust, which has never been closed as required by the statute pertinent {The Code, §§ 1617, 1619), or otherwise, nor did the intestate at any time deny or disavow the trust. In such case, no statute of limitation applies. In Grant v. Hughes, 94 N. C., 231, the Court say: “ The action is not brought upon the' official bond as administrator of the testator of the defendant It is brought to compel an account and settlement of the estate of the intestate of the plaintiff in his hands in his life-time. He was a trustee of an express trust, and the statute of limitations did not apply.”
This case was afterwards cited in Woody v. Brooks. 102 N. C., 334, with approval, and the late Chief Justice Shith said, among other things, “ Until a final account is filed and audited, there can be no bar; nor is there any as to a balance *5admitted to be due by such final account, unless the executor or administrator can show that he has disposed of it in some way authorized by law, or unless there has been a demand and refusal to pay such admitted balance, in which case the action is barred in three years after such demand and refusal.” In this case, the intestate never accounted by filing any final account ; there was no admitted balance, nor did he ever come to an account or settlement in any way with the plaintiff. This express tiust remains to this day unclosed. Other decisions to the like effect might be cited.
Furthermore, in my judgment, there was no sufficient evidence — none that should be treated as evidence — of a demand on the part of the plain (iff upon the intestate, her guardian, that he come to an account and settlement with her, and a refusal on his part to do so'. The intestate of the defendant was the plaintiff’s guardian, and her uncle; he had never accounted as such, had neglected to state and file accounts as the statute required. Twice she wrote him, saying, in substance, that she hoped there was something due her as his ward. He simply said, hastily, in reply, that she had already received more than was due her. What she thus said could not fairly, especially in view of the relations of the parties, be treated as a demand for a settlement, nor what the intestate said a refusal to account. The parties had not reached the point of demand on one side and refusal on the other. The plaintiff did not say, or mean to say, “ You owe me, and I demand a settlement,” nor did the guardian say, or intend to say, “ I do not owe you, I will not account with you, seek your legal remedy,” or the substance of that. The language was not fairly that of demand and refusal. In such cases the demand and refusal should be clear and unmistakable. Here the plaintiff was the niece of her guardian. She simply made a timid inquiry and request of the latter. He did not say, “ I am ready to account with you,” as he ought to have done, and was bound to do, no *6doubt because he did not understand that a demand of set- • tlement was made upon him. The guardian was derelict, never accounted; the plaintiff was trustful and confiding, and hence loses amT sum due her! I do not think the law so intends.
Per Curiam. Error.