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145 Mich. 710

Ackerman v. Pfent

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided September 20, 1906

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1906-09-20

Bill by Mary Ackerman against Frank Pfent to enjoin defendant from proceeding as administrator of the estate of Jacob Ackerman, deceased. From a decree dismissing the bill, complainant appeals. Defendant obtained a judgment against Jacob Ackerman in February, 1903, and on the 17th of November, 1903, filed a transcript in the circuit court, and caused an execution to be issued and a levy made upon 20 acres of land occupied by Ackerman and his family as a homestead.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The petition for administration was regular in' form. There was within the jurisdiction of the probate court an estate to be administered. The determination of that court that defendant was a party entitled to letters of administration is not therefore open to collateral attack.” Ackerman v. Pfent, 145 Mich. 710, 712 .”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Chandler v. White

Relies on Sprague v. Moore · Wilkinson v. Conaty · Johnson v. Estate of Johnson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1906-09-20

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently October 1941

2 state decisions

1019061910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Montgomery, J.

¶1(after stating the facts). The contention of the complainant is that the levy was prima facie a satisfaction of the defendant’s claim, or at least a suspension of his right to proceed to collect his judgment by other proceedings, and that it follows that defendant was not a creditor entitled to administration of Jacob-Acker*712man’s estate. It has long been settled in this State that a levy of an execution upon real estate of the debtor is not prima facie satisfaction of a judgment. Spafford v. Beach, 2 Doug. (Mich.) 150; Miller v. Hanley, 94 Mich. 253.

¶2The petition for administration was regular in form. There was within the jurisdiction of the probate court an estate to be administered. The determination of that court that defendant was a party entitled to letters of administration is not therefore open to collateral attack. Wilkinson v. Conaty, 65 Mich. 614; Johnson v. Johnson's Estate, 66 Mich. 525; In re Sprague's Estate, 125 Mich. 357.

¶3The decree is affirmed, with costs.

Blair, Ostrander, Hooker, and Moore, JJ., concurred.
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