Thompson

Thomas Bell died testate in the city and county of San Francisco. Subsequent to the issuance of letters testamentary, and prior to the return of the inventory and appraisement, the court made an order for a family allowance of two thousand dollars per month, this allowance to continue until the further order of the court. The administration of the estate proceeded on its course, and nearly three years later two creditors filed a petition asking that the order for a family allowance previously made be modified. Theresa Bell, the widow of Thomas Bell, deceased, contested the application, and upon the hearing the original order was modified to -the extent that the allowance was fixed at fifteen hundred dollars per month, commencing at that date. The administration still continuing, about three years later the order of family allowance, at the instance of the same creditors, after a hearing and contest upon the part of the widow, was again modified, being fixed upon that hearing at the amount of one hundred dollars per month. Under these various orders of family allowance more than eighty thousand dollars have been paid by the executors to the widow, and much the greater por *3 tion…

I dissent from the order of the court denying a rehearing.

If it is not true that “the moneys here involved are moneys expended under the subsequent orders,” as stated in the opinion of the court, then this appeal cannot be properly disposed of without deciding the question whether the first order of allowance ceased to he operative on the filing of the inventory, or when the estate became insolvent. I think it clear that at least forty-seven dollars and fifty cents has been allowed in this account for support of family in excess of the total amount payable under the last two orders, and unless this sum is covered by the maxim de minimis, the appellants were entitled to a decision of the question presented by their appeal. In my opinion, even so small a sum as forty-seven dollars and fifty cents is *6 not within, the rule de minimis, especially when it appears that the future proceedings in the settlement of this estate will he embarrassed by the question raised, hut not decided, upon this appeal.