Page:Hill v. State.pdf/3

606

Rh

in money, and $1,837.87, in Arkansas bank paper or bonds, for which a decree was rendered against appellant, as executrix. A decree was also given against her for the sum of $2,365, in money, reported by another special master to whom the matter was referred, as being Hill's portion of the value of the Ferguson negroes, which were lost to the trust, the chancellor held, by the negligence of the Trustees.

It appears that Wm. D. Ferguson had made a mortgage to the bank upon lands and negroes, to secure debts due from him to the bank; the mortgage had been foreclosed, the property sold and purchased by the Trustees. On the 28th May, 1847, the Board of Trustees, (present, Biscoe, Hill, Faulkner and Walters,) made an order, upon application of Ferguson, that when he paid or secured $5500.00 the value fixed upon the slaves, they would reconvey them to him. In the meantime the slaves were to remain in his possession, to be employed, fed, clothed, etc., by him, on condition that he did not remove them from the state. It seems that no further step was taken, by the Trustees, about the matter during their continuance in office. That Ferguson failed to secure or pay the value of the slaves, and that some time or other, whether before or after the death of Hill does not appear, ran them off to Tennessee, and they were lost to the trust.

It was agreed by the parties that there had been no authentication and presentation of the demands against Hill's estate, to his executrix, as required by the administration laws; and that if the statute of non-claim was applicable, to this suit, the appellant should have been discharged.

The bill sought to recover against Hill's estate mere money demands. Upon his death, whatever trust property there may have been in his possession, passed, it must be supposed, in the absence of any showing to the contrary, into the hands of his survivors and successors in office. The decree against his executrix was for money demands, one of them arising upon a re-statement of his book account, and the other upon a valuation of trust property, supposed to have been lost to the trust, by the negligence of himself and his co-trustees, in leaving it in