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40 Ala. 291

Hicks v. Barrett

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1866

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1866-06-15

Tried before the Hon. Porter King. This action was brought by Walter Barrett, against Isaac M. Hicks, as one of the sureties on .the official bond of David Lankford as administrator of Jesse Lankford, deceased; and was commenced on the 15th September, 1859.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Section 1938 of the Code does not, in our opinion, contemplate a suit by an administrator as the representative of an estate. It imposes upon the administrator a trust, separate and distinct from the administration. The trust is not for the benefit of the estate, but of the widow, children, or next of kin of the deceased. The administrator fills this trust, but he does not do it in the capacity of representative of the estate. It is altogether distinct from the administration, notwithstanding it is filled by the administrator. No judgment for costs, in a suit under that section, could properly be rendered, to be levied de bonis intestatis; and the court erred in rendering such a judgment against the administrator of Lankford’s estate.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Kuykendall v. Edmondson

Relies on Savage v. Walshe · Stewart v. Hood · Eckles v. Carter

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1866-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently July 2016

8 state decisions

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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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

A. J. WALKEB, C. J.

¶1Section 1938 of the Code does not, in our opinion, contemplate a suit by an administrator as the representative of an estate. It^imposes upon the administrator a trust separate and distinct from the administration. The trust is not for the benefit of the estate, but of the widow, children, or next of kin of the deceased. The administrator fills this trust, but he does not do it in the capacity of representative of the estate. It is altogether distinct from the administration, notwithstanding it is filled by the administrator. No judgment for costs, in a suit under that section, could properly be rendered, to be levied de bonis intestatis; and the court erred in rendering such a judgment against the administrator of Lankford’s estate. This error is amendable, and will be considered as *294amended. — Stuart v. Hood, 10 Ala. 600; Kennedy v. Young, 26 Ala. 563; Savage v. Walsh, 26 Ala. 619. The judgment is properly de bonis propriis.— Williams v. Hinkle, 15 Ala. 713. There being no liability on the estate for the costs, the surety on the administration bond is obviously not liable for a failure of the administrator to appropriate the assets to the payment of it.

¶2Reversed and remanded.

Eyed, J., not sitting.
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