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36 Tex. 62

Grant v. McKinney

Texas Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1872

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1872-07-01

Error from Walker. Tried below before the Hon. J. it. Burnett. The principal facts are stated in the opinion. Reily was appointed the original administrator of Hanna, at the December term, 1867, of the probate court of Walker county; and the order for his removal was made on the 1st of- April, 1869. This latter order purports to have been made on the application of A. T. McKinney, and this application bore the file mark of April 1st, 1869.

Decided 1872-07-01

Walker, J.

¶1John Reily and Robert Hanna, in the lifetime of Hanna, were partners in trade. Hanna dying, Reily was appointed the administrator of the estate. He qualified and gave bond, with George W. Grant, the plaintiff in error, and J. A. Stranahan as his sureties. Reily was subsequently removed from the administration, and McKinney appointed de bonis non. McKinney brought this suit against Reily and his securities on the official bond. At the March term, 1871, judgment was taken against Reily and Stranahan by default. Grant made defense to the action, but there was a verdict and judgment against him for three hundred and fifty-nine dollars and seventy-eight cents, from which judgment he brings the cause to this court on error.

¶2Two causes for reversal are insisted on. 1st. If Reily did convert the assets of Hanna’s estate to his own use, he did it not as administrator, but as surviving partner. 2d. That the judgment of the probate court of Walker county, removing Reily, was a nullity, and consequently the defendant in error could not have been legally appointed administrator de bonis non, and therefore could not maintain this suit.

¶3These errors are not well taken. Reily, as the administrator of Hanna’s estate, and the securities upon his official bond, are liaCble for whatever assets came into his hands, and though he might have applied Hanna’s interest in the partnership property to the payment of partnership debts without becoming liable to the individual creditors of Hanna,.there is no pretense that a necessity for such application existed.

¶4Under the circumstances insisted upon by appellant’s counsel, the judgment of the probate court would have been only voidable, and therefore, standing as it does, unimpeached and unap-' pealed from, we cannot review it here.

¶5The judgment of the District Court is therefore affirmed.

¶6Affirmed.

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