Mason v. Rose

1936 OK 233, 55 P.2d 765, 176 Okla. 258, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 167
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 10, 1936
DocketNo. 26234.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1936 OK 233 (Mason v. Rose) 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
Mason v. Rose, 1936 OK 233, 55 P.2d 765, 176 Okla. 258, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 167 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

The record on this appeal discloses many facts, only the following of which are deemed material and pertinent to a decision herein:

On March 18, 1920, pursuant to applicable statute, Isaac Mason, as foreign guardian of the person and estate of his minor son. Isaac, Jr., both father and son being residents of the District of Columbia, filed in *259 the county court of Muskogee county an application for the transfer to him of said minor's personal property then being administered in. a local guardianship proceeding in said court. At that time said minor’s estate in Oklahoma consisted of certain money, urban realty, an oil-producing farm, notes secured by mortgages and other securities. Upon the denial of said application by the county court, Mason appealed to the district court of said county, and, after an adverse judgment there, appealed to this court. On February 13, 1923, this court announced irs decision reversing the judgment of the district court and directing it to order the county court to direct the local guardian to effect the transfer (Mason v. Ford, 90 Okla. 112, 216 P. 129). After two successive petitions for rehearing had been denied, the mandate of this court was spread of record in the district court on July 7. 1923, and on the same day an order of that court duly entered in conformity therewith was transmitted to the county court, whose order in turn directed the local guardian to comply with such mandate.

On April 23, 1923, while the above appeal was pending in this court, Sam D. Bose was appointed to succeed F. M. Ford as local guardian of said minor’s estate, the latter having resigned several days prior thereto. Shortly thereafter, on May 9, 1923, Bose filed in the county court his petition for authority to lend one Cox the sum of $7,500 ■out of the guardianship funds turned over to him by Ford and to accept as security therefor Cox’s personal note and a mortgage covering certain improved real estate in the city of Muskogee. After notice of hearing had been given and the real estate and improvements in question had been appraised, all in conformity with prior orders of the court, said petition was heard on May 14, 1923, and the court thereupon approved and authorized the proposed loan. Accordingly, said loan was completed the following day. An analysis cf these proceedings is unnecessary, because appellant admits the regularity thereof, provided the court had jurisdiction to approve and authorize the loan at the time.

On July 21, 1923, Bose, apparently attempting to comply with the above mandate, forwarded certain notes, mortgages, bonds, abstracts and insurance policies, including the Cox note and mortgage, to the National Bank of Washington, at Washington, D. C., which bank, following instructions, delivered the same to Mason on July 26, 1923, and took his receipt therefor. After some differences between Mason and Bose concerning the latter’s administration of said minor’s estate in Oklahoma, Bose, on March 18, 1924, resigned as local guardian and simultaneously filed his final report and account, listing the Cox loan therein. On April 14, 1924, this report and account was regularly approved by the county court, and Bose and the surety on his bond were finally discharged.

Although Mason first voiced some objection to the Cox loan approximately two months after receiving the note and mortgage evidencing the same, he proceeded to collect interest thereunder, and on June 1, 1926, in an action theretofore instituted by him as guardian, procured a judgment on said note and foreclosed the lien of said mortgage. At the foreclosure sale held on January 3, 1927, he purchased the property in said minor’s behalf for $2,(K)0, there being no other bidders, and thereafter made an unsuccessful attempt to collect the deficiency under said judgment by means of general execution. Some time later, the exact date being undisclosed, the apartment house located on said property was condemned and torn down by order of the municipal authorities of the city of Muskogee. This presumably happened after October 22, 1928, because on that date Mason expended $1,-332.80 of said minor’s funds for house repairs.

According to Mason’s ledger sheet with reference to the loan, which takes into account the principal investment, interest maturing prior to the judgment in foreclosure, taxes, insurance and all other expenses, the minor suffered a loss of $11,837.89 from May 14, 1923, to February 19. 1930. However, the loss so disclosed does not take into account the actual value of the property at the time of the foreclosure sale or thereafter, and the record before us contains no evidence of such value other than the amount of Mason’s aforesaid bid, which of itself is of little probative force.

In view of our decision herein, the above facts relating to Mason’s experience with the loan and his handling of the property are material only in so far as they explain the basis for the litigation giving rise to this appeal.

Such litigation began on December 10, 1933, when Mason, as next friend of the minor, instituted in the district court of Muskogee county an action against Bose and *260 United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, the latter being the surety on Rose’s aforesaid bond, for the recovery of $7,S00, with interest from May 14, 1923, as alleged loss and damage sustained by said minor in consequence of the Cox loan. Plaintiff apparently intended to repudiate the loan entirely. After the issues had been fully joined, the case proceeded to trial on December 29, 1934, and judgment was rendered in favor of both defendants on the same date. Plaintiff’s motion for new trial was filed and overruled two days later. Thereupon this appeal was perfected.

The first proposition presented by appellant is that the county court had no jurisdiction to approve and authorize the Cox loan while there was pending in this court an appeal from the proceedings involving the transfer of the minor’s personal property from Oklahoma to the District of Columbia, and that Rose therefore had no authority to make the loan. Let us consider1 that proposition.

Section 1493, O. S. 1931 (sec. 1489, C. O. S. 1921), relating to orders directing the transfer of personalty from local to foreign guardians, provides as follows:

“Such order is a discharge of the * * * local guardian * * * in whose possession the property may be at the time the order is made, oil filing with the county court the receipt therefor of the foreign guardian of such absent ward.” (Emphasis ours.)

It is clearly the intention of the above section that the local guardian shall be deprived of custody and control of the property embraced in the order directing the transfer and shall be relieved of further responsibility therefor only if and when he has delivered the same to the foreign guardian and has taken and filed the latter’s receipt therefor' (Kersey v. McDougal, 79 Okla. 53, 191 P. 594). The mere entry of the order itself cannot effect the contemplated discharge, irrespective of whether such order is entered by the county court in the first instance or pursuant to directions from the district court or this court on appeal. The local guardian necessarily retains custody and control of such property and remains liable therefor until the actual delivery thereof has been completed.

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Related

In Re Estate of LaRose
2000 OK CIV APP 33 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 233, 55 P.2d 765, 176 Okla. 258, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 167, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mason-v-rose-okla-1936.