Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 12 Sec. 4251

  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • Bailiff: a court officer who enforces the rules of behavior in courtrooms.
  • Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.

§ 4251. Actions for accounting—jury

The Superior Court shall have original jurisdiction in actions for an accounting other than accountings involved in the administration of trusts under Title 14A. When the defendant in such an action brought in one of the following ways pleads in defense an answer which, if true, makes him or her not liable to account, the issue thus raised may be tried to a jury:

(1) by one joint tenant, tenant in common, or coparcener, his or her administrator or executor against the other, his or her administrator or executor, as bailiff for receiving more than his or her just proportion of any estate or interest;

(2) by an administrator or executor against his or her coadministrator or coexecutor, who neglects to pay the debts and funeral charges of the intestate or testator, in proportion to the estate in his or her hands, and he or she may recover such proportion of such estate as is just;

(3) by an executor, being a residuary legatee, against the coexecutor to recover his or her equal and ratable part of the estate in the hands of such coexecutor;

(4) by a residuary legatee against the executor; or

(5) on book account. (Amended 1971, No. 185 (Adj. Sess.), § 117, eff. March 29, 1972; 1973, No. 193 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 9, 1974; 2009, No. 20, § 5; 2009, No. 154 (Adj. Sess.), § 80.)