Snider v. Brown

S. conveyed to W. a tract of land on condition that he should pay certain parties, who subsequently became the heirs and legatees of S., certain sums of money to become due and payable annually after his death. One of the legatees and her assignee of a part of the sum bequeathed to her, brought a bill after the death of S. to subject the land, there being but little xiersonal estate, or the sum due thereon from W., to payment-of their claims. The administrators with the will annexed and W. only were made parties defendant. The court decreed that the complainant’s claims and the debts due sundry creditors be paid by W., and in default thereof, that the land be sold. Held : 1. That the remaining legatees, who were entitled to the residuum of the proceeds of the sale, ought to have been parties. 2. It appearing by the answer of W. that there was a judgment creditor, he ought to have been made a party. 3. The decree below was erroneous because it did not say against whom the recovery of the complainants was had, whether against the administrators or W. 4. None of the creditors having been made parties to the suit it was erroneous to render a decree in their favor against the estate. 5. The decree below was further erroneous because it ordered that unless W. should pay off a sum amounting to 991 dollars and 58 cents in thirty days after it was rendered, the land should be sold, when by the terms of the deed there was at most about 700 dollars due in the annual payments provided for in the deed.

In 1862, Jámes W. Brown and Catherine Snider filed a bill in the circuit court of Preston county, against Jacob Snider and Samuel W. Snider, administrators with the will annexed of Jacob Snider, Sen., deceased. The bill alleged that Snider made his will in June, 1859, and died in 1860; that it was provided in the will that complainant Catherine, who was the widow of the testator, should have 400 dollars, 100 dollars to be paid at the death of the testator and the residue in annual payments of 50 dollars each. The residue was to be equally divided between certain legatees named in the will, a part of his children. That the complainant J. W. Brown bought a part of complainant Catherine’s share, to-wit: the sum due at the death of the testator. That there was no real estate of the testator, and but little personal estate except the proceeds of the sale of a farm made in 1858, to one William D. Snider, a son of the testator, and who was to pay according to the provisions of the will and also the terms of the deed, the sum of 1,800 dollars to the legatees of the will; that it was expressed in the deed that William W. Snider was to have credit for sums paid out for the use of the testator, on the 1,300 dollars expressed in the deed as the consideration. The bill further alleged that the personal estate would be less than 100 dollars, and the debts against the estate would be more than four times that sum; that the administrators refused to pay the debt of the complainant Brown, and that there was ample funds due from William D. Snider to pay it, and that the administrators should have collected the same and paid complainant’s debt. The bill prayed that the administrators and William D. Snider be made parties, and that the former be required to settle their accounts, and that the land sold to William D. Snider be decreed to be sold to pay the debts of the complainant if he did not pay the amount due from him on the land. The answer of William I). Snider alleged the want of parties to the suit to enable a settlement of the whole estate, and mentioned a judgment creditor by name; that he entered into an agreement, which was subsequently confirmed by the deed for the laud, with his father the testator, in 1858, whereby it appeared that the defendant was to pay the 1,300 dollars in the manner heretofore mentioned, and that for any money advanced to the testator before his death, or before the time when the whole sum should be paid by the defendant he was to have a credit therefor with interest from, the time of payment, and that he had paid large sums accordingly, which be set out by exhibits. These items of account do not appear to have been regarded by the commissioner, by the court below, nor by this court. The cause was referred to a master-commissioner who reported the sum of 31 dollars and 80 cents due from the administrators; that William D. Snider owed the estate of Jacob Snider 1,300 dollars, 100 dollars whereof was due on the 6th of May, 1860, and 100 dollars annually thereafter; that there was due the complainant Brown out of the 1,300 dollars, 136 dollars and 60 cents with interest oil 100 dollars from June 13th, 1866, the date of the report, and to complainant Catherine 409 dollars and 80 cents with interest on 300 dollars, parcel thereof, from the same period. The report further showed that there was due from the testator’s estate to various creditors who were named, sums amounting in the aggregate to 445 dollars and 18 cents, which, together with the sums due the complainant, were 'decreed in June, 1866, to be paid out of 1,300 dollars due from William D. Snider. And it was also further decreed that unless William D. Snider pay the sums thus decreed the parties, within thirty days from the date of the decree, that the tract of land purchased by him be sold in the usual manner, &c. From the decree oi;dering a sale of the land William I). Snider appealed.