Gill v. Everman

59 S.W. 531, 94 Tex. 209, 1900 Tex. LEXIS 235
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1900
DocketNo. 944.
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 59 S.W. 531 (Gill v. Everman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gill v. Everman, 59 S.W. 531, 94 Tex. 209, 1900 Tex. LEXIS 235 (Tex. 1900).

Opinion

GAINES, Chief Justice.

This case comes to us upon a certified question. The certificate is as follows:

“At our last term, the judgment in this case was reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial, but a motion for rehearing was filed and is now pending, and inasmuch as considerable doubt has arisen with some of us as to the correctness of our decision on the original hearing, we deem it advisable to certify to your honors,for decision the main question involved in this motion; that is, whether or not the transcript-set out in our original opinion filed June 16, 1900, showed that appellee had been appointed and qualified as the guardian of the estate of Maude and Lizzie Gill as provided in article 2753 of our Revised Statutes, to which opinion reference is made for statement of the case, and of the question certified, and it is ordered that the opinion, briefs, motion for rehearing and transcript ’accompany this certificate.”

The following is the transcript to which reference is made in the certificate :'

“In the Matter of the Estate of Marcus Gill, Deceased.—In the Bourbon County Court. In Probate, March Term, March 6, 1899.

“Transcript of the record in the above entitled cause, including waiver, order of guardian and guardian’s bond, to wit:

“waiver.

“Hon. W. M. Purnell, J. B. C. C. Feby. 25, 1899.

“I hereby waive my right to qualify as guardian of my two children, Maude and Lizzie Gill, aged respectively 7 and 5 years, and request that my cousin, Jacób Everman, be permitted to qualify as such.

“Mrs. Mart Gill.

“order guardian.

“Mrs. Mary Gill, widow of Marcus Gill, deceased, filed her waiver herein, and on motion, it is ordered that Jacob Everman be and he is hereby appointed guardian of Maude Gill and Lizzie Gill, infants under the age of fourteen years and heirs of Marcus Gill, deceased. Where- ■ fore, he took the oath required by law, and with D. L. Robbins and H. C. Gillespie, his sureties, executed bond to the Commonwealth of Kentucky conditioned agreeably to law.

“guardian’s bond.

“The Commonwealth of Kentucky, Bourbon County Court:

“Whereas, Jacob Everman has been appointed by the County Court of Bourbon County and has qualified as guardian of Maude Gill and Lizzie Gill, infants under the age of fourteen years and heirs of Marcus Gill, deceased. Now we, Jacob Everman as principal and D. L. Rob *213 bins and H. C. Gillespie, his sureties, do hereby covenant to and with the Commonwealth of'Kentucky that the said Jacob Everman will faithfully discharge the trust of guardian to said minors in all respects as provided by law.

"Signed this 6th day of March, 1899.

"Jacob Everman,

"D. L. Robbins,

“(U. S. Stamp 50 cts.) "H. C. Gillespie.”

The transcript is accompanied by the respective certificates of the clerk and judge of the court, as is required by the act of Congress and the statutes 6f this State.

Article 2753 of our Revised Statutes provides that "where a guardian and his ward are nonresidents, such guardian may file in the county court of any county a full and complete transcript from the records of a court of competent jurisdiction where he and his ward reside, showing that he has been appointed and has qualified as guardian of the estate of such ward; which said transcript shall be certified by the clerk of the court in which the proceedings were had under the seal of such court, if there be one, together with a certificate from the judge, chief justice, or presiding magistrate of such court, as the case may be, that the attestation to such transcript is in due form; and upon the filing of such transcript, the same may be recorded, and the guardian shall be entitled to receive letters of guardianship of the estate of such minor situated in this State, upon filing a bond with sureties, as in other cases, in double the amount of the estimated value of such estate.” Clearly, under this provision, a nonresident applicant for letters of guardianship must show that he has been duly appointed and has duly qualified as guardian of the estate of the minor in some other State or country, and it is equally clear that the transcript from the County Court of Bourbon County, Kentucky, exhibited in evidence in this case, docs not expressly show such appointment and qualification. But in order to maintain the affirmative of the question certified, it is contended, first, that under the laws, of Kentucky a guardian appointed by the county court becomes guardian both of the person and estate of the ward, and that it being the judgment of a court of a sister State, we should take judicial knowledge of those laws; and, in the second place, that if this can not be done, the transcript is sufficient, even under our own laws, to show affirmatively, though impliedly, that the appointment and qualification was as guardian of the estate of the •wards.

In support of the first proposition, we are cited to the case of State v. Hinchman, 27 Pennsylvania State, 483. The case is directly in point and supports the contention, and was followed by the Supreme Court of Rhode Island in the case of Paine v. Insurance Company, 11 Rhode Island, 411. The decisions in these cases proceed upon the theory that since the laws of the United States require the courts of a State to give *214 “full faith and credit” to the judicial proceedings of every other State, the courts will assume to know the laws of such other State so far as is necessary to ascertain the faith and credit due to such proceedings. But this is a question of the construction of a Federal law,—á question upon which the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States is of paramount authority, and that court has distinctly repudiated the doctrine of the Pennsylvania case. Hanley v. Donoghue, 116 U. S., 1; Railway v. Ferry Co., 119 U. S., 615. Not only this, but our own court has decided the point adversely to the contention of appellee’s counsel. Porcheler v. Bronson, 50 Texas, 555. The case of Henry v. Allen, 82 Texas, 35, does not hold the contrary. The ruling there was, in effect, that the court would presume that the special judge'hefore whom the case was tried in another State was regularly qualified to try the cause, and that it was not necessary to plead and prove the laws of Arkansas authorizing his appointment. It is true that the court say: “Under the general averments of the petition, such proof was admissible, and it has been held that in such eases a court trying a cause based on the judgment of a sister State, authenticated in accordance with the act of Congress, would take judicial notice of the laws of the State in which the judgment was rendered” (citing State v. Hinchman, supra); but it is clear that the holding in the case cited is neither approved nor disapproved. We conclude that the general rule, which is well established in this court, applies in this case, and that in the absence of evidence as to the laws of Kentucky, we must presume that the laws of that State in relation to the appointment and qualification of guardians are the same as the laws of Texas.

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Bluebook (online)
59 S.W. 531, 94 Tex. 209, 1900 Tex. LEXIS 235, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gill-v-everman-tex-1900.