Shaeffer v. Shaeffer

Alvey, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This action was brought against the defendant in his representative character of executor; and the claim sought to be recovered is for work, services, and board furnished the deceased in his life-time, and for things charged as ⁶⁸³ funeral expenses. The case was tried on the general issue plea of non-assumpsit. We think the Court below was clearly right in its ruling as stated in the first bill of exception.

The fact allowed to be proved was tbe only part of the offer by the defendant that would appear to have any relevancy to the issue on trial; and all the rest of the offer, therefore, was properly excluded. To have admitted in evidence all the offer as made, would have tended to raise a false issue before the jury, and that the Court should always be careful to avoid. The principal subject of controversy on this appeal is the claim of the plaintiff for $100, charged in his account as for funeral and other expenses. As we have stated, the action is against the defendant in his representative character as executor, and the proof on the part of the plaintiff shows that the charge in his account of $100, as for funeral and other expenses, was for dinner and horse feed, furnished at the house of the plaintiff on the day of the burial of the deceased, but after the funeral had taken place, to persons who had attended the funeral.

The deceased had lived for a considerable time with the plaintiff, and died in the house of the latter. On the day of the funeral, the body was taken to a church some five miles distant for interment, and after the funeral services were over and the body buried, the plaintiff caused an invitation to be given to those present to repair to his house for dinner ; and the proof shows that some seventy or eighty persons accepted the invitation and dined with the plaintiff, and that twenty-five or thirty horses, of parties so dining, were also fed by the plaintiff. It nowhere appears that this entertainment was provided at the instance or request of the defendant; but it seems to have been the unsolicited and voluntary act of the plaintiff. The charge is sought to be maintained by what is said to be a custom in the neighborhood. ⁶⁸⁴ By the Code, Art. 93, see. 5, as modified by the Act of 1874, ch. 155, it is provided, that funeral expenses shall be allowed at the discretion of the Orphans’ Court, according to the condition and circumstances of the deceased.

And, as has been very properly said, no precise sum can be fixed to govern in all cases. It will vary in every instance, not only with the station in life of each particular decedent, but also with the price of the requisite articles at the particular place ; and it must also vary with respect to the circumstances, and extent of the decedent’s estate. 2 Wms. Ex’rs, 831. For while a particular allowance for funeral expenses out of an ample estate to pay debts and legacies might be regarded as in all respects reasonable and proper, such an allowance might be far otherwise as against creditors of an insolvent estate.

Hence the allowance is placed at the discretion of the Orphans’ Court,