v.
Jesse O. Wells
The appellees, Jesse O'. Wells and Sarah A. Wells, were the duly appointed executors of the will of Levi J. Wells, deceased. On or about August 8, 1903, they made and filed their final account and report of their trust, and asked to be discharged therefrom. On September 15, 1903, notice of such final account having been given to all parties in interest, the district court examined and approved the same, ordered final distribution of the assets of the estate, and the discharge of the executors. Among the beneficiaries under the will was Levi B. Wells, assignor of the appellant herein. Some time after the discharge of the executors Levi B. Wells claimed to have discovered that the final account and report of the executors were untrue and incorrect in material respects, and made demand upon the appellees for their correction. His demand not being complied with, he assigned his claim to the appellant, who on December 23, 1905, instituted this action in equity to set aside the order approving the report and discharging the executors, and to require further accounting with respect to various matters specified in the petition. The defendants denied all of the plaintiff’s allegations of wrong, fraud, and mistake on their part, and pleaded the approval of their report and the order for their discharge as a complete adjudication of the matters sought to be controverted. The district court dismissed the petition, and plaintiff appeals.
For the proper disposition of the question raised by counsel a brief reference to the conceded or well-established facts is necessary. It appears that in his lifetime the testator, Levi J.. Wells, was for a long time the owner of a valuable hack and bus line and transfer business in the city of Des [*675] Moines, and that some years prior to his death he associated with him as a partner in said business his son, Jesse O. Wells, one of the appellees. After this partnership was entered into, a form of incorporation was adopted,- and the partnership L. J. Wells & Son leased the property and business to this corporation at a specified rental of $1,000 per month, but the profits of the business which continued ever after in the management and control of these two persons were never sufficient to pay such rent in full. So far as appears, no stock was ever issued to or held by any other persons than Levi J. Wells and Jesse O. Wells, twenty-six shares of $100 each to the former, and twenty-four shares of $100 each to the latter, on none of which is anything shown to have been paid. By his will Levi J. Wells, after making provision for his wife, devised and bequeathed to Jesse O. Wells, certain described lots, “ together with the livery barns, shops, or buildings on said lots or any of them or on the east 44 feet of said lots 5 and 6, in block 10; also all horses, carriages, vehicles, harness, tools, furniture, or furnishings of every description belonging to and used in connection with said livery business, blacksmith or repair- shops.” It is conceded that the real estate thus described (together with a strip six inches wide hereinafter referred to) includes all of the buildings in which and the location upon which the said partnership business had been carried on prior to the death of the testator. It is also conceded that, in addition to the real estate particularly described in the foregoing device, the testator owned adjacent thereto an additional strip of six inches in width, which is not specifically described or mentioned anywhere in said will. In another paragraph provision is made for the benefit of Levi B. Wells, the appellant’s grantor. The executors are given authority to sell the undevised property of the testator so far as necessary for the payment of debts, and to distribute the residuum among the testator’s heirs according to law. The fraud alleged to have been practiced by the executors, and upon which a reopening of the accounts of the estate is [*676] demanded, consists in: (a) An alleged failure of the executors to charge themselves with the full amount of the balance due to the testator at the time of his death from the partnership of L. J.'Wells & Son; (b) failure to account for one-half the value of the good will of the partnership business of L. J. Wells & Son; (c) failure to account for the shares of capital stock owned by the testator in the corporation above mentioned, and (d) failure to sell the undevised six-inch strip of land above mentioned, and distribute the proceeds thereof.
Taking up the first item in the alleged fraud, the discrepancy alleged to exist between the balance reported by the executors on the account due from Jesse O. Wells to the partnership of L. J. Wells & Son and the much greater balance which appellant now computes, and we find the claim thus asserted necessarily involves a reconsideration and retrial of one of the very questions which was tried on the former hearing. In their final report the executors did not suppress the fact of the existence of an account due from Jesse O. Wells to the partnership, for one-half of which the estate was entitled to credit. On the contrary, they conceded the existence of such account, and charged themselves with what they claimed to be the balance due to the testator. The correctness of that showing was one of the matters submitted to the court, and was open to examination and objection by the legatees under the will, all of whom were brought in by notice and appeared in person or by counsel. The books showing the account were presumably in court, or, if not, the court’s process would have secured their production upon the demand of any heir or legatee desiring to use them in evidence. No objection appears to have been raised, and judgment was entered approving the report. No appeal was taken therefrom, and such finding must stand as a conelu [*678] sive adjudication against all of the parties represented at that hearing. Under the rule of the cited cases, the adjudication could not he contested in this proceeding, even if it were capable of being shown that the judgment then entered -was procured upon false testimony. As said by the Massachusetts court: “ Where a matter has actually been tried, or was so in issue that it might have been tried, it is not again admissible. The party is estopped to set up such fraud because the judgment is the highest evidence.” Greene v. Greene, 2 Gray (Mass.), 361 (61 Am. Dec. 454) ; Pico v. Cohn, 91 Cal. 125 (25 Pac. 970, 27 Pac. 537, 13 L. R. A. 336, 25 Am. St. Rep. 159). If the matter of the existence of the partnership account had been fraudulently suppressed and concealed, so that we could fairly say that the subject had not been presented to or passed upon by the court, it might well be held that the plea of former adjudication is not applicable under the principle recognized in Tucker v. Stewart, 121 Iowa, 716, and Arnold v. Spates, 65 Iowa, 570. But, as we have already said, the item here in question was not omitted from the adjudication. It may have been incorrect in amount, it may be that the allowance should have been for the larger amount now claimed by appellant, but all of these questions should have been tried upon objection to the item as reported, and their determination necessarily inheres in the judgment.
Discussing this question, a leading text-writer says that the term “ good will ” is used in two distinct senses. It is applied, first, to the natural advantage which arises from the fact of sole ownership; and, secondly, to the right of exclusive ownership or exclusive exercise of a business based upon special contract. The latter species of good will is a commodity upon which a valuation may be placed, but the former passes as necessarily incident with the property, and cannot be separated from it. Speaking of a good will of the latter kind, classification in which the good will of the business now in question must be included, the writer says: “ This, therefore, is not a tangible interest. It is not a commodity upon which a specific value can be placed, or for which a definite allowance can be made. Therefore, on the death of one partner, it is not stock upon which the executor of the deceased partner can compel a division unless he can compel a sale of the whole premises and stock as in the case of a partnership at will. Under this latter circumstance, however, the good will would accompany the rest of the stock, [*681] and might create some additional speculative value in the mind of a purchaser.” Collyer on Partnership, section 162. To the same effect Mr. Parsons, in his work on Partnership (page 262), uses this language: “ The executor of a deceased partner can realize the share of the deceased in the good will only when he can compel a sale of the stock and premises, and then the good will goes with them; for, as a general rule, by the conveyance of a shop or store, the good will of the business carried on in it passes, although nothing is said about the good will. But, if the executor cannot compel a sale of the premises or the premises are not in fact sold, the executor gets no advantage with the good will, for that remains entirely with the surviving partners who carry on the same business in the same place.”
The same question, involving facts very like those in the case at bar, was considered in Robertson v. Quiddington, 28 Beav. 529, where the court says: “ The good will is a valuable and tangible thing in many cases, but it is never a tangible thing unless it is connected with the business itself, from which it cannot be separated, and I never knew a case in which it has been so treated.” The question has also had thorough consideration at the hands of the Nebraska court, where a conclusion in harmony with the rules we have cited was announced. Lobeck v. Lee-Clarke-Andreesen Hardware Co., 37 Neb. 158 (55 N. W. 650, 23 L. R. A. 795). It is doubtless true that the property devised to Jesse O. Wells was more valuable because of the good will of the business which had been built up thereon by the testator and his son than it would otherwise have been; but we must presume that the testator appreciated this fact, and had it in contemplation in providing for the distribution of his estate among those upon whom he wished to confer his bounty. The question here discussed bears an altogether different aspect than would be presented had Levi J. Wells died intestate. In such cases in the ordinary course of administration the entire property would have been subjected to sale and the value of [*682] the good will of the business presumably have been realized in the added value of the property when placed upon the market by the administrator or surviving partner.
It follows from the foregoing that the decree of the district court is right; and it is affirmed.