McAllen v. Wood

201 S.W. 433, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 154
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 30, 1918
DocketNo. 5948.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 201 S.W. 433 (McAllen v. Wood) 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
McAllen v. Wood, 201 S.W. 433, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 154 (Tex. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

MOURSUND, J.

On June 8, 1917, the county judge of Cameron county, on his own motion, appointed A. Wayne Wood temporary guardian of the estates of Mildred, Salome, Eldred, and Argyle McAllen, all minors under the age of 14 years. On June 12, 1917, Margaret R. McAllen, the mother of said children, filed in the district court of Cameron county her petition for writ of certiorari to review and correct the said order appointing such temporary guardian, and prayed for and secured an order superseding said order until a hearing could be had. In her petition Mrs. McAllen sought to be appointed guardian of the estates of said minors if a guardianship appeared to the district court to be necessary.

On June 16, 1917, A. Wayne Wood, as such temporary guardian, filed his application to revise and set aside the orders theretofor® made by the district judge for certiorari and for supersedeas.

On June 16, 1917, Martha Rohde, a sister of Mrs. McAllen, filed her plea of intervention, objecting to the appointment of Wood and praying that such appointment be set aside, and in the event it is found that a guardianship is necessary, and that Mrs. Mc-Allen is disqualified to act as such, then that she be appointed as guardian of any estates of said minors.

On June 16, 1917, the trial was begun on the motion to set aside the order granting the writ, and on- June 20th Mrs. McAllen filed a request that the district court render a final judgment on the merits of the cause on the termination of the trial. On June 23d, the hearing having closed, the court rendered a final judgment affirming the order of the county judge and confirming the appointment of Wood as temporary guardian, annulling the writ of supersedeas, and overruling and denying the petitions of Mrs. McAllen and Martha Rohde for appointment of themselves as temporary guardian in place of said Wood. Mrs. McAllen • by supersedeas bond perfected an appeal and Martha Rohde also appealed.

[1] The contention by ai>pellee that the district court had no jurisdiction to entertain a petition for writ of certiorari to revise an order appointing a temporary administrator is without merit. Article 4096 makes all provisions of the title relating to the guardianship of minors applicable to temporary guardianships in so far as the same are applicable, and not inconsistent with any of the provisions relating to temporary guardianships. Article 4301 provides that any person interested may have any decision, order, or judgment of the county court or county judge revised and corrected by writ of cer-tiorari from the district court under the same rules and regulations as are provided in estates of decedents. There is no inconsistency between the provision allowing an appeal and the provision allowing a contest of the order appointing the temporary guardian to be made at the following term of court, in order to raise the issue who shall be appointed permanent guardian.

[2] Objection is made to appellants’ brier in so far as it attempts to submit the first assignment of error contained in the transcript. Instead of copying the assignment in the brief, it is subdivided into six assignments, designated as first assignment, subdivision “a,” first assignment, subdivision *435 “b,” etc. Each of these assignments is followed by propositions and- statements. This method of briefing is in violation of rule 29 for the Courts of Civil Appeals (142 S. W. xiii), which requires that the assignments be copied in the brief. Mansfield v. Mansfield, 198 S. W. 169; Progressive Oil Co. v. Crawford, 184 S. W. 728. It is not permissible to reconstruct assignments, as was done in this case by making six assignments in the brief out of one contained in the transcript. The two assignments' presented by Martha E. Rohde are subject to the same objections. Such assignments will not be considered.

[3] It is contended in the second assignment of error that the judgment of the district court is contrary to law in that the uncon-troverted evidence shows that it is an attempt on the part of the temporary guardian, at the instigation and for the benefit of certain attorneys to institute a suit against plaintiff for the purpose of distressing and harassing her, and of enforcing the employment of said attorneys, which is contrary to the statute of barratry. Of course, the judgment of the court could not be an attempt on the part of the guardian to do anything, so we assume that it is contended that Wood had himself appointed for the purpose of bringing suit against Mrs. McAllen, at the instigation and for the benefit of certain attorneys, for the purpose of distressing and harassing her, and of enforcing the employment of said attorneys. The county judge, on his own motion, appointed Wood, and there is no evidence that he sought the appointment or that his purpose in accepting the appointment was to benefit any attorneys. It appears that two firms of attorneys had some differences with Mrs. McAllen about a contract of employment to represent her in certain litigation, but that, acceding to her contentions, the matter was dropped with the understanding that there was no employment. One of these attorneys was employed by the guardian, and it seems that appellant’s theory is that by accepting such employment he would participate in the litigation involving the McAllen property as attorney for the guardian, and be enabled to collect a fee from the estates of the minors, if they have estates, and therefore it ought to be assumed that he instigated Wood to become guardian. The record discloses absolutely nothing improper in the conduct of any of the attorneys referred to or the guardian, and quite naturally the district court refused to hold Wood disqualified on assumptions not warranted by the evidence. As Mrs. McAllen claims to own practically all of the McAllen estate under instruments executed by McAl-len shortly before his death, it is apparent that the minors, although bequeathed four-fifths of the estate by a wilb duly probated at the instance of Mrs. McAllen, will be deprived >of the right to have the validity of the instruments relied on by their mother determined by the courts, if she is to be held exempt from suits on the ground that the same may vex and harass her. The guardian was appointed for the protection of the estates of the minors, and it was necessarily contemplated that litigation with Mrs. Mc-Allen might be necessary in order to determine what their rights are. The . assignment is overruled.

[4] The third assignment asserts that the court erred in its judgment in confirming the appointment of A. Wayne Wood as temporary guardian “for the reason that it is contrary to good morals and sound public policy.” In support of the contention, it is urged that the appointment was instigated as a result of the refusal of Mrs. McAllen to employ certain attorneys to represent her in the management of the McAllen estate. There is no evidence pointed out which shows that any one instigated the appointment, but surely the judgment of the district court is not dependent on the motives of those who cause to be brought to the attention of the county judge facts relating to the estates of minors. It is further urged that the uncontroverted evidence shows that it is an attempt on the part of certain Masons of Brownsville to dictate to Mrs. McAllen who should be her legal advisers in the management of her private affairs. We fail to see how any number of attempts to dictate to Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
201 S.W. 433, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcallen-v-wood-texapp-1918.