Estate of Bernal

These are appeals by various parties from portions of the decree of settlement of the final account of the executor of the will of deceased, and final distribution, which, by stipulation, have been brought to this court upon one transcript, and submitted for decision together.

The material facts are undisputed. Deceased died testate September 6, 1905, leaving her surviving as her only heirs, her son, appellant Jose Cornelio Bernal, who is the surviving executor of her will, and eight grandchildren, six of whom are the children of her deceased daughter Elodie Macdonald, and two of whom are the children of her deceased daughter, Jovita McKinnon, whom we shall designate hereafter as the Macdonalds and the McKinnons. She left valuable real property, one portion thereof being an undivided three-fourths interest in a tract of land in the city and county of San Francisco containing some twenty-five acres, known as the Italian Gardens. This at the time of her death was encumbered by a mortgage given by her on January 28, 1903, to the Columbus Savings & Loan Society, a corporation, to secure the payment of her promissory note of the same date to said corporation, for thirteen thousand…