Thompson v. Whitmarsh

Full title: JANE E. THOMPSON, Respondent, v . HIRAM WHITMARSH, Appellant

Court: Court of Appeals of the State of New York

Date published: Oct 6, 1885

2 N.E. 273 (N.Y. 1885)

2 N.E. 273

Opinion

Argued June 8, 1885

Decided October 6, 1885

A.P. Smith for appellant. Franklin Pierce for respondent.

FINCH, J.

It is not denied in this case that, irrespective of sections 449 and 1814 of the Code, and before its enactment, an executor or administrator, seeking to enforce a contract made by himself and not by the decedent, could sue in his own name; and that in such action a demand against the decedent belonging to the defendant could not be used as a counter-claim to diminish or extinguish the recovery. It is insisted, however, that the effect of these sections is to change the law, and compel the executor or administrator to sue in his representative capacity where his recovery will be assets, and is for the benefit of the estate. Under section 449 every action must be brought by the real party in interest, and where the recovery is wholly for the benefit of the estate, it is said such real party in interest is the executor or administrator, and not the individual who happens to be charged with the trust duties. And this contention is claimed to be strengthened by the language of section 1814, that "an action or special proceeding, hereafter commenced by an executor or administrator, upon a cause of action belonging to him in his representative capacity * * * must be brought by * * * him in his representative capacity." Here the plaintiff is executrix, and sold upon credit, property of the estate to the defendant, who holds an unpaid note of the decedent. The estate is insolvent, and if the defendant can use his demand as a counter-claim, he alone of all the creditors can secure a preference out of the assets, and be paid in full at the expense of others equally entitled to payment. The result would overturn the whole system of distribution to creditors, and compel executors and administrators never to sell on credit at public auction where creditors of the deceased could buy, or in some unexplained way exclude them from the list of purchasers. No such construction of the Code is permissible. Where an executor or administrator sells on credit the property of the estate, and sues to recover the debt, he, as an individual, is the real party in interest, for the contract is made with him, and the promise to pay runs to him, and he is personally accountable for the assets which he has sold. For the same reason the debt does not belong to him in his representative capacity within the intent and meaning of the section of the Code referred to. That phrase relates to debts which belonged to the testator or intestate, and came to the executor or administrator through his representation of the deceased rather than as the result of his own action. The effect of the section, and the change produced by it, is upon the class of cases in which the action could have been maintained in either form; as where, upon a contract made with the testator, the cause of action accrued after his death; or where, upon a debt or obligation due to the deceased, the executor or administrator has taken a new security or evidence of debt. In these cases, before the Code, the action might be in the individual or representative name, but now must be in the latter. Upon new contracts made by the executor or administrator, and never existing in favor of the decedent, but growing out of the contracts and dealing of the former alone, the action is properly brought in the name of the individual, and a debt against the decedent cannot be made the subject of a counter-claim. It must be paid in the ordinary course of administration, and can gain no preference, as it is entitled to none.

This particular ground of objection appears not to have been taken at the General Term, and so was not considered in the opinion there rendered, which sufficiently answered the other grounds urged in support of the appeal.

The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.

All concur.

Judgment affirmed.