Opinion
(December Term, 1842.)
Under our act (Rev. Stat., c. 46, s. 23), allowing executors and administrators nine months before they are required to plead, they can no more avail themselves, under the plea of plene administravit, of a voluntary payment of a debt after notice of a writ sued out, than they could before the passage of this act.
APPEAL from Settle, J., Spring Term, 1842, of NASH.
The following facts were admitted by the parties as constituting a case agreed for the opinion of the Court. The writ of the plaintiff was issued on 14 February, 1839, and executed on 7 March, returnable to the May Term of Nash County Court. At the return term the defendants craved the benefit of the act allowing time to executors and administrators to plead, and were allowed until the November Term of the said Court following, at which term the defendants entered their pleas, admitting the voluntary payment of debts of equal dignity with the plaintiff's, after the service of the writ, but before the November Term to which they had been allowed time to plead. It was admitted by the plaintiff that if the voluntary payments thus made by the defendants after the service of his writ and before plea pleaded were good in law, then the defendants had fully administered, and judgment should be entered in their favor accordingly. So it was admitted by defendants, that if their payments after notice of the plaintiff's debt but before plea pleaded should be deemed in law as not good, then they had assets, and judgment was to be entered for the plaintiff for the sum of $115.08, the principal of the note declared on, together with the interest thereon from 15 May, 1838, and costs. (167)
His Honor, being of opinion that the payments made by the defendants after the service of the plaintiff's writ, and with notice of his debt, were not good in law, gave judgment for the plaintiff. From this judgment the defendants appealed to the Supreme Court.
Saunders, for the plaintiff.
B. F. Moore, for the defendants.
It is admitted by the defendants' counsel that, at common law, an executor, after he is sued and has notice of the writ, cannot be allowed, under the plea of plene administravit, to give in evidence a voluntary payment, without suit, of a debt of equal or inferior dignity to that sued on; Williams Ex., 679, 1213, 1214. By the statute (Rev. Stat., ch. 46, sec. 23), "no executor or administrator shall be compelled to plead to any original suit brought against him in any Court, until the expiration of nine calendar months from and after his taking upon himself the office of executor or administrator." At the first term, after the time given him by the act had expired, he must plead, or the plaintiff may take judgment by default against him. The act was only intended to give to executors and administrators an opportunity to learn the amount and nature of the debts, and also the amount of the assets, so as to enable them to act and plead understandingly. The act does not alter the rules of the common law, in any other particular that we are aware of.
PER CURIAM. Affirmed.
Cited: Hall v. Gully, 26 N.C. 347.
(168)