In re Estate of Thompson

This is an appeal by Isaac Goldtree, one of the trustees of the estate of Jonathan Thompson, deceased, under the will, from a decree settling an account.

Thompson died in the county of San Luis Obispo, on December 5, 1875, leaving a will in which, after making certain specific bequests, he directed the residue of his estate to be distributed to three trustees, to hold and invest the same, and deliver the income thereof to four sets of beneficiaries during their lifetimes; and thereafter to deliver the estate to the children of the first-named beneficiaries. The will was duly admitted to probate; and on March 16, 1877, the estate was distributed to the trustees, and the executors were discharged. On December 22,1884, one of the trustees named in the will was removed from his office as trustee, and the appellant, Goldtree, was appointed a trustee to fill the vacancy. Ever since said last-named date, Goldtree and John Thompson have been sole trustees of the estate, Grierson, one of the trustees named in the will, having resigned on the twenty-second day of December, 1884. The estate consisted of a large amount of real estate, lying in different counties, $11,453.84 in money,…

The modification made in the judgment of the Department in this case does not, in my opinion, rectify all the errors of which appellant has a right to complain, and is not, therefore, a sufficient ground for denying him a rehearing. Even allowing that he is justly chargeable with interest compounded annually at the rate of ten per cent on the funds in his hands, he is still entitled to be credited with the payments made by him at the dates when they were made. By the method of computation followed in arriving at the amount of the judgment now given, *357 interest is calculated on the whole of each annual balance for a whole year, and from the amount of principal and interest all the payments made during the year are aggregated, and deducted as if they had all been made on the last day instead of having been made, as the record shows they were, from time to time during the year. This error is partially compensated, it is true, by treating his receipts in the same way, but since his payments were largely in excess of his receipts, the erroneous method of computation necessarily works to his disadvantage.

This, however, is a trifling matter compared to the error—as I deem it to…