Lipscomb v. Lofland

141 S.W.2d 983, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 505
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 10, 1940
DocketNo. 5127
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 141 S.W.2d 983 (Lipscomb v. Lofland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lipscomb v. Lofland, 141 S.W.2d 983, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 505 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

STOKES, Justice.

We handed down an opinion in this case on March 11, 1940, in which the case was. reversed and remanded. Motions for rehearing have been filed by all parties and a reconsideration of the entire record has convinced us that we erred in reversing the judgment. . The original opinion is, therefore, ; withdrawn- .and the following-opinion substituted therefor:

[985]*985Plaintiffs in error, Audrey Lofland Lipscomb, joined by her husband, Lloyd Lipscomb, and joined also by C. W. Ryan as guardian of the estate of Billie Marylin Lofland, a minor, filed this suit in the district court against Maye Lofland, the original guardian of the estates of Audrey Lofland Lipscomb and Billie Marylin Lof-land, and against Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland, surety on the general guardianship bond and two special real estate sales bonds of Maye Lofland. The purpose of the suit was to recover certain amounts claimed as being due the former wards by reason of the alleged waste, devastation and conversion of property coming into the hands of the guardian and belonging to the wards. It was alleged in the petition that certain proceedings in the probate court of Hall County, especially the orders entered by it in the guardianship pertaining to the disposition of the proceeds of the sale of certain real estate and personal property and money belonging to the wards, were void for various reasons set out in the petition and the orders entered by that court directing and approving the disposition and application of such proceeds and money, and approving the annual account of the guardian, were void because of the want of authority in the probate court to enter them under the circumstances alleged to have existed in the guardianship at the times they were entered.

The case was submitted to the court without the intervention of a jury and resulted in a judgment in favor of the defendants, from which the plaintiffs have sued' out a writ of error.

Defendants in error contend that the suit -of plaintiffs in error constitutes a collateral attack upon the various orders and judgments entered by the probate court in the guardianship proceedings which cannot be maintained under the allegations and proof. While the record contains a large number of assignments of error and propositions of law, the controlling question in the case is presented by these contentions of the parties.

John Lofland, the husband of the guardian and the natural father of Audrey Lof-land, died intestate on the 22nd of April, 1929, leaving his wife, Maye Lofland, and a daughter, Audrey, who was then a minor. John Lofland and his wife had adopted plaintiff in error, Billie Marylin Lofland, and she was living with the family at the time of his death. During his lifetime John Lofland maintained a policy of insurance upon his life in the sum of $10,-000 in which his wife, Maye Lofland, and his natural daughter, Audrey, were the beneficiaries. After his death, Maye Lof-land made application and qualified as guardian of the estates of the two children and collected $8,400 from the life insurance company, being the amount due thereon after deducting some loans which had been advanced to John Lofland during his lifetime. Of the amount so collected, one-half, or $4,200, was appropriated by the guardian as her own property and the other half inventoried in the guardianship as the property of her ward, Audrey Loflan'd. Immediately after collecting the proceeds of the life insurance policy, Mrs. . Lofland, out of her own funds, paid various and sundry accounts owing by her husband at the time of his death, amounting in the aggregate to $4,-199.84. She then made application to the probate court to be reimbursed this amount out of the $4,200 belonging to the estate of Audrey Lofland, alleging that the accounts which she had paid constituted charges against the entire estate of her deceased husband and that she was entitled to be subrogated to the rights of the creditors whom she had paid. The county judge heard the application, entered an order granting the same, and 'un--der it the guardian appropriated as a reimbursement to herself the sum of $4,-199.84, which constituted all of the proceeds of the life insurance policy which belonged to Audrey Lofland except 160.

The record shows that John Lofland, at the'time of his death, owned 960 acres of land which was-his separate property, and also a homestead in the town of Memphis which was the community property of him-; self and his surviving wife. The land was encumbered for a large amount in the nature of a -loan and the- guardian made application to sell 760 acres of it. The application was granted by the court,' the sale consummated, ‘reported and confirmed by order duly entered in the guardianship. By this transaction, 200 acres of the land was saved to the estates of the minors, free and clear of all encumbrance. The record further shows that the homestead was sold under application and order of the court for the sum of $3,500, one-half of which belonged to the minors but .was not included in the inventory. . .

[986]*986On September 9, 1930, the guardian filed her first annual account in which it is shown that in her administration of Audrey’s estate she had collected a total of $11,583.20. and had disbursed $9,257.80. The report included one-half of the proceeds of the sale of the homestead. She claimed commissions of $993.05 and reported a loss on a cattle transaction of $529.50- which exhausted the entire estate inventoried or reported to the court as being in her hands, except the 200 acres of land and left the estate indebted to her in the sum of $197.15. In this report she also made an exhibit of her administration of Billie Marylin’s estate. The report was approved on the 6th of October, 1930, by order duly entered in thé guardianship by the county judge.

On the 17th of February, 1932, Maye Lofland filed an application to be permitted to resign and in connection with it, before it, was acted upon by the court, she filed a purported final report. On the 6th of June, 1932, her resignation was accepted by an order duly entered by the court in which it was ordered that the final report, together with the order, be spread upon the minutes of the court.

On August 11, 1932, A. T. Cole, as next friend of the minors, filed in the county court of Hall County a petition for a bill .of review, in which he sought to have set aside and held for naught all of the orders approving any expenditures by the guardian out of the funds of the guardianship, and prayed that the orders and proceedings be reconsidered and- reviewed by the court, and that the guardian be ordered to return the sum of $12,000 which he alleged' she had wrongfully expended as guardian. The guardian filed her answer -and the petition for bill of review was heard by the county court on the 1st of February, 1933. The judgment entered by the court on that day shows that the cause came on to be considered and the. court was of the opinion that the law was against it. The court found .that the former county judge had not committed errors in any of the orders entered in the guardianship as set out in the bill and the relief prayed for was, therefore, denied. Exception was taken to the judgment and notice of appeal to the district court was entered but the appeal was not perfected nor any further proceeding had upon the bill of review.

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

Related

Stevenson v. Tice
593 S.W.2d 794 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Ex Parte Lindsey
561 S.W.2d 572 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1978)
City of Austin v. Austin National Bank
488 S.W.2d 586 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1972)
Holcomb v. Brown
473 S.W.2d 595 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)
Harrold v. First Nat. Bank of Fort Worth
93 F. Supp. 882 (N.D. Texas, 1950)
McLendon v. Comer
200 S.W.2d 427 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1947)
Ex Parte Giannatti
189 S.W.2d 191 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1945)
Walker v. Sinclair Prairie Oil Co.
166 S.W.2d 383 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1942)
Cook v. Wilmeth
166 S.W.2d 359 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1942)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
141 S.W.2d 983, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lipscomb-v-lofland-texapp-1940.