Garnett v. Myers

93 Okla. 143
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 30, 1923
DocketNo. 11872
StatusPublished

This text of 93 Okla. 143 (Garnett v. Myers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garnett v. Myers, 93 Okla. 143 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

Opinion by

THREAD GILL, C.

This is an appeal by Phillip H. Garnett, former guardian of Ada Myers, his former minor ward, from an order and judgment of the district court of Muskogee county surcharging him and his final account with three certain items, as follows: $666.66, $53.38. and $48.00, making a total surcharge against him of $767.99.

The first and third of these items were set out and stated in the guardian’s annual .report and the second item was not specially reported but they wére all claimed as credits by the guardian in his final settlement.

The first item, $666-66, was for attorney fees, and was allowed by special order of the court upon a. petition by the attorney and the guardian for that purpose. The guardian, by approval and order of the court, had employed Dan N. Meredith, an attorney, by written contract, agreeing to give him one-third interest in a certain tract of land to bring suit to recover and clear the title of same, and if the suit failed he should receive nothing for his services. The suit was brought, the land recovered, and the title cleared. The agricultural value of the! land was estimated at $4,000, the oil and gas royalty value at $3,000, and there was an oil and gas lease on said land with an annual rental value of $160. It was considered that the contract for an interest in the land was void or nonenforceable, and upon petition of the guardian the court made an order allowing the attorney a money fee for his services, the amount to be equal to one-third of the estimated value of the said tract of land, and this item of $666.66 is a part of this money fee; the balance of the fee paid by the guardian upon allowance and order of the court was the sum of $1,325 which is not contested in this appeal. The item of $53.33 was paid without a special order of the court and was reported by implication in one of the annual reports, that is, the guardian collected the annual rental from the oil and gas lease in the sum of $160.00 and paid the attorney one-third of it, being $53.33, and reported the balance for his ward in the annual report. The order allowing the item of $666.66 and directing the guardian to pay it to the attorney was made by the court on September 15, 1916, and the final paragraph in said order was as follows:

“It is therefore, ordered, adjudged and decreed by this court that the said Dan N. Meredith is entitled to be paid an undivided one-third interest in the sum of $2,000, being the sum of $666.66, and that the guardian is hereby authorized and directed to pay the said Dan N. Meredith the sum of $eG6.-66.”

This item was reported in the annual report January 8, 1917, as item of credit. After due notice this report was heard on February 2, 1917. and by order of the court was approved and the balance due the ward was $1,104.38. The guardian made and filed his second report January 21, 1918, and the same was approved by order of the court on February 18, 1918, and the balance due the ward was $86.48.

On November 1, 1918, the third annual report was made and filed, the same was approved November 23, 1918, and balance due the ward was $67.68- The final report of the guardian was made and filed on December 6, 1919. The ward becoming of age filed objections to this report on December 31, 1919, in which she objected to the three items above mentioned together with many [145]*145other objections to the annual reports as" well as the final report. The court overruled the objections of the ward as to these three items and approved the final reports January 16, 1920. The item above mentioned of $84.88 was for appraisers’ fees and were paid by the guardian by special order of the court made on November 6, 1918, and the same was reported as an item of credit in the next annual report thereafter. All the items contested and involved in this appeal were allowed by order of the court except the $53.30, and were not objected to until objections were filed to the guardian's final report December 31, 1919.

1- It is the contention of the appellant that the orders made by the county court allowing attorney’s fee in the sum of $666.66 and the appraisers’ fees in the sum of $84.88 and directing the same' to be paid and the same being paid, in the absence of fraud or mistake, are conclusive upon all parties and not subject to contest on hearing of final report. We think this is correct. The Constitution and statutes creating and regulating county courts of this state provide for original jurisdiction in all probate and guardianship matters, and their orders and judgments have the same force and effect and are subject to the same procedure for correction as district courts. Section 7, article 11, Constitution; section 1085, Compiled Laws 1921; Greer et al. v. McNeill et al., 11 Okla. 519, 69 Pac. 891; McFarland v. Barker et al., 80 Okla. 274, 196 Pac. 131.

The appellee, in contesting the $666-66 item and the $84.88 item, which were allowed by special order of the court upon petition of the guardian, does not object to or contest these items by motion to set aside the orders allowing and directing them to be paid, and does not claim any mistake or fraud, and does not deny that they were paid, but proceeds on the theory that they are such items of the estate reported in the annual reports as can be contested by objections to the final report of the guardian, under the general rule as stated in Lewis’ Estate. 81 Okla. 240, 196 Pac. 341; In re. Cobb’s Estate, 66 Okla. 53. 66 Pac. 885; Tilman v. Tilman, 74 Oklahoma, 177 Pac. 558, and Rule 4 of this court, staled in 47 Okla- at page xv; and we are In full accord with the general rule as stated in all these cases but they are not applicable to the question raised by the appellant in the case at bar. In the case of Lewis’ Estate, supra, all the annual reports of the guardian were introduced in evidence and the question of fraud and proper vouchers were the questions involved in the case. In the ease of Cobb’s Estate, supra, it is held that the settlement by the county court of an annual account of a guardian is not equal and conclusive upon the- ward but only prima facie evidence of its correctness and subject to reexamination upon the hearing of the final account of the guardian. Rule 4 of this court -states the same rule. In Tilman v. Tilman, supra, the court .stated the rules in the first paragraph of the syllabus as follows:

“Where exceptions are filed to the final report of the guardian and the correctness of previous reports during the entire period of his guardianship is properly challenged it becomes the duty of the county court t® hear and determine the controversy thus raised and render such judgment as the facts and circumstances justify.”

Under these decisions the orden» of the county court approving annual 'reports are' in the nature of interlocutory orders and are only prima facie evidence of their correctness, and as long as the court has jurisdiction of the ease such orders and the items entering into the reports are subject to be changed upon objections at any time before final judgment and the discharge of guardian subject to the rights of the ward when be reaches his majority to move in the ease.

While it is true that all items entering into the estate of the ward and all items stated in the annual reports of the guardian may be called u-p, examined, and passed on in the final report and may be objected to on the hearing of the final report, yet some items cannot be successfully objected to and contested in such hearing.

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Related

Greer v. McNeal
1901 OK 58 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1901)
Tilman v. Tilman
1918 OK 671 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1918)
Cotner v. Lon Jacobs Grocery Co.
1921 OK 377 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1921)
Evans v. Harris
1916 OK 596 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1916)
McFarland v. Barker
1921 OK 38 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1921)
In Re Cobb's Estate
1917 OK 401 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1917)
Ozark Oil Co. v. Berryhill
1914 OK 408 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1914)
In Re Estate of Lewis
196 P. 341 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1921)

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Bluebook (online)
93 Okla. 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garnett-v-myers-okla-1923.