Ackermann v. Haumueller

128 S.W. 51, 148 Mo. App. 400, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 628
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 3, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 128 S.W. 51 (Ackermann v. Haumueller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ackermann v. Haumueller, 128 S.W. 51, 148 Mo. App. 400, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 628 (Mo. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, P. J.

(after stating the facts). — In the vieAv that we take of this case it is unnecessary to examine into the instructions or to set out the evidence any further than Ave have done. It may be repeated that it was stipulated on the trial as an admission in the case that Henry Haumueller was the guardian of the plaintiff Elsie and that as guardian he had made final settlement of his accounts and had been discharged, and that the period for which services are demanded was embraced within his term as guardian.

Counsel for respondent has submitted a very elaborate and learned brief and argument, a large part devoted to a challenge of the abstract furnished by appellant. The points made against the abstract, as that was originally filed are correct, but subsequent to the filing of the motion and before submission of the cause, appellant inserted in the abstract printed pages covering the omitted recitals. This was done by leave of court and the abstract as presented when the case was submitted was without the defects complained of by the learned counsel for the respondent.

On the merits counsel for respondent make six propositions: First, that a former judgment Avill not bar a subsequent action betAveen the same parties unless the subject-matter of the two actions be identical; second, the earnings or services of the ward do not constitute guardianship assets and their existence or value are not adjudicated by the final settlement of the guardian; third, the judgment of the probate court in the final settlement of curators, administrators or execu[406]*406tors, does not conclude matters not actually or properly included in such settlements; fourth, no one, not even a father, is entitled to the earnings and services of an infant, unless he discharges the duty of a father in maintaining and supporting such infant; fifth, the mere fact of consanguinity or the fact of living together under the same roof, or both together, raises no presumption that the head of such family is entitled to the services or earnings of the others; sixth, as a matter of fact and of law, the deceased did not stand in- loco parentis toward the plaintiff. In the view we take of the case the only points necessary to be considered for its determination are the first, second and third. Considering these, not separately nor in the order named, but together, for they all tend practically to one point, it may be conceded that a former judgment will not bar a subsequent action between the same parties unless the subject-matter of the two actions be identical. That, however, does not meet the question presented by this case. The judgment here relied upon by the defendant is a judgment by the probate court on the final settlement of the guardian, approving that settlement and discharging Haumueller as guardian. To disturb the force and effect of that and show that it is not conclusive in the present action, it must be attacked directly and not collaterally as here attempted. The law presumes that a final settlement of a guardian, like that of an administrator, includes all matters relating to the trust, and it allows such judgments on settlements to be attacked and opened up only by direct proceedings to surcharge and falsify or possibly by a bill in equity for fraud, omission or mistake. It is not necessary to determine here what is the appropriate remedy or mode of reaching it, it being sufficient to say, for the purposes of this case, that this present proceeding is a collateral attack; that in this action that judgment must stand as conclusive of all matters which the probate court might have passed [407]*407upon in that proceeding. Whether it did pass upon them is a matter that may be disposed of if that judgment is directly attached. The authorities, in this State on that are all one way. The question of whether the account or charges for services could and should have been included in the final or annual settlements depends on the further fact of whether such charges of the ward are proper matters of account by the guardian and as to Whether they, as guardianship assets or of the trust for which the guardian is responsible. Counsel for respondent contend that the earnings or the services of a Avard do not constitute guardianship assets and their existence or value are not to be adjudicated by the final settlement of the guardian. They cite in support of this Blanchard v. Ilsley, 120 Mass. 487; Heilman v. Martin, 2 Ark. 158; Phillips et al. v. Davis et al., 2 Sneed (Tenn.) 520; Bass v. Cook, 4 Port. (Ala.) 390.

Blanchard v. Ilsley can hardly be considered in point. It was an action for seduction and the question was whether the guardian as against the father was entitled to the services of the daughter. The court held that in a case of that kind the right of action was in the father and not in the guardian. In the subsequent case of Shurtleff v. Rile, 140 Mass. 213, which was an action on the guardian’s bond, the Massachusetts Supreme Court held than in settling the guardians accounts and in determining his liability on his bond, the question of the value of the services Avas properly to be considered.

In Heilman v. Martin it is true that the Supreme Court of Arkansas held that the guardian and' his sureties were not liable on the former’s bond, deciding it, however, on the terms of the bond itself. But this can hardly be considered a determination of the proposition, because the court found that the party claiming to be guardian had never been legally appointed as such and that the bond given was void. We cannot, therefore, [408]*408consider this as an authoritative decision of any point before the court, but as dicta. But whether dicta or in 'decision, it is practically overturned by the decision of the Supreme Court of that state in the later case of Campbell v. Clark, 63 Ark. 450, 39 S. W. 262, a suit in equity to surcharge and correct the final settlement of the guardihn. In this latter case it was held that when the ward lived with the guardian as a member of his family, receiving support on the one hand and on the other rendering ordinary household services required by parents of their children, such services will be presumed, in the absence of a clear showing to the contrary, to be a sufficient compensation for the board of the ward. In support of this the Supreme Court of Arkansas cite many cases, among others Folger v. Heidel, 60 Mo. 285.

In Phillips et al. v. Davis et al., it was held, in a bill in equity against the guardian and his sureties on his bond to enforce settlement by the guardian, that the guardian’s charges for clothing, etc., and the children’s claim to offset these for services and labor, were not properly to be considered in an action of that kind and that the sureties of the guardian were not liable on the bond for the services of the children. That does not meet this case.

In Bass v. Cook it is true that the Supreme Court of Alabama held that in a settlement of the guardian’s accounts, an allowance would not be made in favor of the ward for services as an offset to charges for clothing and maintenance. But in Calhoun v. Calhoun, 41 Ala. 369, an appeal from the judgment of the probate court on the final settlement of a guardian’s accounts, the court held that credits for services rendered were proper matters of account. So that we think that the weight of authority, particularly in the more modern decisions, as shown in case after case, involving the settlement of guardians and administrators, as well as the views of accepted textwriters, conclusively deter[409]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
128 S.W. 51, 148 Mo. App. 400, 1910 Mo. App. LEXIS 628, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ackermann-v-haumueller-moctapp-1910.