In Re Guardianship of White

140 So. 2d 311
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 19, 1962
DocketC-481
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 140 So. 2d 311 (In Re Guardianship of White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Guardianship of White, 140 So. 2d 311 (Fla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

140 So.2d 311 (1962)

In re GUARDIANSHIP OF Iva Mae Palmer WHITE, an Incompetent.

No. C-481.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.

April 19, 1962.
Rehearing Denied May 14, 1962.

*312 W.J. Gardiner, Daytona Beach, for appellant.

Raymond, Wilson & Karl, Daytona Beach, for appellee.

STURGIS, Judge.

We review an order of the County Judge's Court of Volusia County entered in the matter of the estate of Iva Mae Palmer White, an incompetent, whose disabilities have been removed. The appeal is prosecuted by her husband, Harvey E. White, individually and as legal guardian of the property of said incompetent, and by W.J. Gardiner, the attorney for said guardian; the appeal of the latter having to do only with the source from which, according to the order, payment is to be made of fees allowed to said attorney for legal services rendered on behalf of the ward's estate.

Promptly upon being restored to competency the ward filed a petition in said guardianship proceeding the general object of which was (1) to have the guardian held in contempt of court for failure to comply with orders theretofore entered in the proceedings, (2) to re-examine in the light of objections filed by the ward the annual returns filed by the guardian, which had theretofore been approved by orders of said court under circumstances hereinafter related, and (3) to require the guardian to finally account for and deliver to the ward the property of her estate remaining in his hands. Upon filing thereof, the County Judge forthwith entered an order setting a date for hearing and directing the guardian to produce at such hearing all books, records, documents and accounts pertaining to the guardianship and to several concerns, including Norm-Glo, Inc., a corporation in which the guardian held legal title to all outstanding stock and in which the ward claimed an interest. Said order also directed the guardian to make a showing of his management and handling of several matters allegedly having to do with property rights of the ward. The guardian moved the court to dismiss said petition and to strike severally each paragraph and sentence thereof; and without waiving said motions, also filed an answer the general effect of which was to put in issue all material allegations of the petition. Upon final hearing, the court entered the order appealed, which is to the following effect, in substance:

(1) Allowed a fee of $2,000.00 to appellant Gardiner for legal services rendered on behalf of the guardianship, with the proviso that payment should be made out of a specific fund, namely, money payable by the guardian to the ward as ordered therein.

(2) Held that the charges made by the petition were well founded, except that certain allegedly missing accounts of the guardian, which had evidently been overlooked, were in fact among the court records.

*313 (3) Held that since notice of hearing on the accounts of the guardian was not given and served in accordance with Section 744.29, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., the court was entitled to consider and rule on the ward's objections to said accounts.

(4) Held that the objections of the ward to certain items of disbursement charged against her by the accountings of the guardian were sustained, and disallowed any credits therefor to the guardian.

(5) Held that the guardian had failed to account for and there was due by the guardian to the ward the sum of $412.50, constituting the value of her one-half interest in a certain 1953 four-door automobile which the guardian had disposed of.

(6) Held that the ward had a one-half interest, of the value of $1,832.50, in a 1956 Chrysler Imperial automobile which the guardian had traded for a 1958 Chrysler automobile the title to which was taken in the name of Norm-Glo, Inc., a corporation. The court undertook by the hereinafter mentioned provisions relating to said corporation to adjust said interest of the ward in the automobile so disposed of by the guardian.

(7) Held that the guardian, in violation of his duties as such incident to the operation of a partnership business jointly owned by him and the ward and which with the consent of the court he continued to conduct during the period of the ward's incompetency, caused a corporation known as Norm-Glo, Inc., to be formed and utilized, without the approval of the court, for the purpose of operating and conducting a competing business to that of said partnership, and held that said corporation was in truth and substance only an extension of the partnership operation.

(8) The court took note of the fact that said corporation was organized on March 17, 1958, that the ward's disabilities were removed on April 23, 1959, and that the guardian had made no accounting to the ward of the income and profits for that period, which were denied to the partnership by the above mentioned business operations of said corporation, and for the purpose of establishing the amount due to the ward in that behalf adopted as a norm evidence reflecting the net profits of said corporation for the tax year beginning October 1, 1958, and ending September 30, 1959. On that predicate the court held that the amount due by the guardian to the ward in the premises was $2,330.63, and ordered the guardian to pay said sum to the ward.

(9) Held that the guardian had not paid, credited, or remitted to the ward her share of the profits, as reflected by the guardian's accounts, of the aforesaid partnership owned jointly by the guardian and ward; that there was due and owing from the guardian to the ward in that behalf the sum of $2,782.24 for the first accounting period under the guardianship (May 22, 1957, through December 31, 1957); that the amount so due and payable for the second accounting period (January 1, 1958, through December 31, 1958) was $3,734.36; and that the amount so due and payable to the ward for the final accounting period (January 1, 1959, through April 23, 1959) was $1,544.65.

(10) Ordered the guardian to (a) cause to be transferred to the ward within ten days from the date of the order one half of the outstanding capital stock of Norm-Glo, Inc., and thereafter to refrain from transferring the voting stock of the corporation so that the holding of the ward will not be reduced to less than one half of the outstanding voting stock of the corporation; and (b) within thirty days from said date remit for the account of the ward the sum of $10,804.38 (being the total of the aforesaid amounts found to be due) "by paying $2,000.00 to W.J. Gardiner [the attorney for the estate] and the balance of $8,804.38 to Iva Mae Palmer White [the ward]."

The substantial points of law presented by this appeal may be summarized as follows:

1. Whether the County Judge's Court had power to re-examine and re-adjudicate such of the returns of the guardian as had theretofore been approved by order of the *314 court; it appearing that the orders approving same were entered without notice to the ward.

2. Whether said court had the power, in settling the guardianship accounts, to require the guardian to pay to the ward, whose disabilities had been removed, a sum of money found to be due by the guardian to the ward, under pain of being held in contempt for failure so to do.

3.

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Bluebook (online)
140 So. 2d 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-guardianship-of-white-fladistctapp-1962.