In re Barker

164 P. 382, 83 Or. 702, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 72
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 10, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 164 P. 382 (In re Barker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Barker, 164 P. 382, 83 Or. 702, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 72 (Or. 1917).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Burnett

delivered the opinion of the court.

Referring to the guardianship of a spendthrift, it is said in Section 1324, L. O. L.:

“If a guardian shall be appointed on such application, all contracts, excepting for necessaries, and all gifts, sales, or transfer of real or personal estate made by such spendthrift, after such filing of the complaint in the county clerk’s office, and before the termination of the guardianship, shall be null and void.”

In Section 1326, L. O. L., it is provided thus:

“Every guardian so appointed for a spendthrift shall have the care and custody of the person of the ward, and the management of all his estate, until the guardian shall be legally discharged. * * ”

Under Section 1327, every guardian is required to—

“pay all just debts due from his ward out of his personal estate, if sufficient, and if not, out of his real estate, upon obtaining a license for the sale thereof, as provided by law.”

1. Under the assignments of error it is contended that the articles furnished Barker were not necessaries and that the claim for the same was not valid, as against the estate of the spendthrift. The Circuit Court found that the goods were received and used by Barker in and about the maintenance of his home and that they were family necessities. The agreed statement of facts and the testimony received in addition thereto convinces us that this finding was justified. There seems to be but little contest over the fact that the goods were groceries consisting of articles of food used by the spendthrift. The contention against the decree is that the guardian had placed in the hands of his ward each month ample [706]*706funds with which he could have supplied himself with what was requisite for his sustenance, and hence that the food which the petitioners furnished him and which he actually consumed, hut did not pay for in full, were not necessaries. Some old precedents from other states have been cited which apparently support that argument, but they do not seem to be applicable to our statute. Section 1326, L. O. L., confers upon the guardian the management of all his ward’s estate and the following section directs him to pay all just debts due from his ward. To deliver into the latter’s hands, therefore, the funds of his estate is at war with the general scheme of guardianship. If the guardian is to manage all the ward’s property, as the statute says he must, it is a violation of his duty to commit the control of any considerable portion of it to the spendthrift himself. In good reason he that hath discretion to manage his own property hath no need of a guardian. The very cause for appointing a custodian for the estate of a profligate person is that he is dissipating it and that therefore it is necessary to take from him all authority over it. It seems from the record that instead of applying to his actual necessities the allowance given to him by his guardian, Barker took counsel of his propensities rather than of good judgment and squandered the money, failing to pay in full for the necessaries which the petitioners furnished him. Although he may have wasted his allowance in riotous living, still it was imperative for him to live, and, under Section 1326, supra, he was entitled to contract for what was requisite to that end, it being within the exception to the general rule declaring all agreements, gifts, sales or transfers of property to be utterly void. To declare that furnishing him money which he ought to have expended in payment [707]*707for the essentials furnished, hut otherwise wasted, would take from his food, for instance, its character as a necessity, and would be to say that the payment of his just debts could be prevented by a void act. It is true enough that if the guardian or anyone else had in fact provided for his needs in quantity and quality suitable to his income and station in life, anything in addition thereto would not be a necessity; but supplying him money with opportunity to waste it as he chooses is not equivalent to a delivery of what is requisite for his sustenance. He is either qualified to manage his estate or he is not. His competency is not apportionable. He may contract for necessaries under the statute, but if he does not pay for them his estate must respond. The only way to escape this result is for the guardian having the care of the ward to furnish him with such things or cause them to be directly provided for him and not entrust money for that purpose to the spendthrift himself.

2, 3. It is next urged in the brief for the appellant that:

“The court erred in entering any judgment for claimant, even though the claim was for necessaries, it being an appeal from a rejected claim by the county court. All the circuit court could do would be to approve the claim and send it back to the probate court as an approved claim, to be paid in due course of administration. ’ ’

In support of this argument much reliance is placed upon Sturgis v. Sturgis, 51 Or. 10 (93 Pac. 696, 131 Am. St. Rep. 724, 15 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1034, note). In that case a spendthrift under guardianship desired to marry a wife but his guardian refused to consent, whereupon he with his betrothed went into another state, was there married, and returned to Oregon. In the course of events the wife began a suit against [708]*708the spendthrift husband for a divorce, making the guardian a party defendant so as to subject the husband’s estate to the payment of alimony. After hearing upon affidavit the court ordered that the defendants pay to the clerk thereof $150 as suit money and $50 as temporary alimony each month during the pendency of the litigation. The guardian appealed and this court held that the judgment against him was erroneous; that the order of the Circuit Court merely established a liability against the ward, but that it could be enforced against his estate only through the process of the County Court in granting a license to the guardian to sell realty if the personal property of the ward was insufficient to pay the debt.

We may well doubt, as a general principle, that a court which has jurisdiction to render a judgment or decree has not the authority to enforce it. Indeed, it is said in Section 983, L. O. L.:

“When jurisdiction is, by the organic law of this state, or by this code or any other statute, conferred on a court or judicial officer, all the means to carry it into effect are also given; and in the exercise. of the jurisdiction, if the course of proceeding be not specifically pointed out by this code, any suitable process or mode of proceeding may be adopted which may appear most conformable to the spirit of this code.”

It is not necessary, however, to further criticise Sturgis v. Sturgis, 51 Or. 10 (93 Pac. 696, 131 Am. St. Rep. 724, 15 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1034). In Section 936, L. O. L., we find:

“The county court has the exclusive jurisdiction in the first. instance pertaining to a court of probate, * * (3) to direct and control the conduct and settle the accounts of executors, administrators and guardians. ’ ’

It proceeds in a manner analogous to the conduct of a suit in equity as distinguished from an action at law [709]*709and its decisions are embodied in the form of orders and decrees: Sections 1135, L. O. L.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In re the Marriage of Maresh
87 P.3d 1154 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2004)
Olshen v. Kaufman
385 P.2d 161 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1963)
Industrial Hospital Ass'n v. Ege
165 P.2d 576 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1945)
In Re Mannix Estate
29 P.2d 364 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1933)
Re Thomas Prince Estate
246 P. 713 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1926)
Ong v. Idleman
221 P. 554 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1923)
Wright v. Wimberly
184 P. 740 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
164 P. 382, 83 Or. 702, 1917 Ore. LEXIS 72, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-barker-or-1917.