Moats v. Moore

199 Ill. App. 270, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 202
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 17, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 199 Ill. App. 270 (Moats v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moats v. Moore, 199 Ill. App. 270, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 202 (Ill. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

Mr. Justice McBride

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a proceeding instituted by the appellant in the County Court of Wayne county to require a settlement of the accounts of appellee as conservator, and to order that he be discharged as such. Judgment was rendered against appellant in the County Court and she prosecuted an appeal to the Circuit Court of said county, where a trial was had that resulted in a judgment against appellant, to reverse which she prosecutes this appeal.

It appears from the record in this case that appellant was a resident of Wayne county, Illinois, and that early in the year of 1913 she became sick and sorely afflicted and was taken to the Egyptian Hospital at Mt. Vernon, Illinois, about February 7th for treatment, and while undergoing treatment her physical and mental condition was such that she became deranged, and on the 17th of February, 1913, a statement of lunacy was filed in the County Court of Jefferson county, a medical commission was appointed as provided by statute and an examination made by such commission and a certificate filed that she was of unsound mind and recommended that she be committed to the Anna State Hospital. Thereupon the County Court of Jefferson county found her to be insane and ordered that she be committed to the Anna State Hospital for the insane. The appellant was at that time the owner of property •estimated at over $6,000, and the appellee filed a petition in the County Court of Wayne county, together with a transcript of the order of court finding the appellant insane, and asked the County Court of Wayne county to appoint a conservator to take charge of appellant’s property, and on March 11, 1913, it was ordered and adjudged by said court that the appellee be appointed conservator for appellant, and he was required to give bond in the amount of $6,000, which was given and approved by the court and letters of conservatorship issued, and appellee has from that time forward acted as the conservator of appellant.

It further appears from the record that the appellant remained in said insane hospital until the 11th day of September, 1914, at which date one J. B. Harris, attorney for appellant, directed to William 1ST. Butler, judge of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petition was granted and made returnable on September 12th, at which time appellant was taken before Judge Butler and upon a hearing then had she was adjudged sane and an order entered to that effect. Whereupon appellant presented a copy of said judgment of the Circuit Judge to the County Court of Jefferson county, where the inquest was had, and procured the said judgment of insanity to be rescinded and set aside. On the 19th day of September, 1914, the appellant filed her petition in the County Court of Wayne county, accompanied by a certified copy of the order of court of Jefferson county, rescinding the judgment of insanity entered in the County Court of Jefferson county. Said petition also alleged that the appellant had been declared insane by the County Court of Jefferson county, that the County Court of Wayne county had appointed appellee conservator; that Judge Butler had adjudged appellant to be sane; that the County Court of Jefferson county had set aside the order heretofore entered declaring her insane, and copies of such judgments and proceedings were made Exhibits and attached to the said petition. Said petition asked that an order might be entered herein directing, “Her conservator William E. Moore, commanding the said William E. Moore that the file in this honorable court within ten days from this date a full, complete, and verified report of his acts and doings as conservator of your petitioner, from the time of Ms appointment to the filing of said report; that upon the approval of said report by tMs honorable court, an order be entered of record herein discharging the said William E. Moore as such conservator, and restoring your petitioner to her rights as a citizen, and directing that the said William E. Moore immediately deliver to your petitioner, or to some one thereafter authorized by her, all the property of your petitioner in Ms possession, custody or control.”

To this petition the appellee filed an answer averring that the said Mary E. Moats was not a fit person to have the care, custody and control of her property, for the reason that she is a person who spends and wastes her estate, and is a spendthrift, and that if such property were turned over to her she would waste the same and expose herself to want and suffering. Also averring that J. B. Harris, attorney for petitioner, had obtained a judgment note from appellant for $1,000, and that the said J. B. Harris had since that time obtained a judgment upon said note against her for $1,100, including an attorney’s fee of $100. And also avers- that the appellant was not a bona fide resident of Madison county but that she was a resident of Wayne county, and that she had relatives and property in Wayne county, and asks that he be retained as her conservator or that some other suitable person be appointed by the court as her conservator.

The cause was tried by a jury upon the petition and answer as above set forth, and the jury returned a verdict for the appellee and against the appellant, upon which judgment was rendered by the Circuit Court of Wayne county.

Appellant seeks to reverse this order of court: First, because the appellant was never legally declared insane and that no basis ever existed for the appointment of a conservator.

It is claimed by counsel for appellant that at the time she was adjudged insane that no notice was served upon her and that she was not present at the time of the adjudication. While the County Court of Jefferson county was a court of limited jurisdiction, it was not a court of inferior jurisdiction, and was invested by the Legislature with jurisdiction in this class of cases, and as liberal intendments will be made in favor of its jurisdiction in this class of cases as will be extended to proceedings in the Circuit Court. Fecht v. Freeman, 251 Ill. 84.

With reference to proceedings in the Circuit Court, our Supreme Court- has said: ‘ ‘ The decree contains no recital of .notice to the defendants, either by service of process or otherwise; but the City Court of East St. Louis is a court of general jurisdiction, and from the fact that it rendered the decree the presumption arises that it had jurisdiction both as to the subject-matter and the parties to do so. It is a rule of uniform application in relation to superior courts or courts of general jurisdiction, that nothing is to be presumed to be out of their jurisdiction but that which specially appears to be so. Where the record of a judgment or decree is relied on in a collateral proceeding, jurisdiction must be presumed in favor of a court of general jurisdiction, although it is not alleged and does not appear in the record.” Horn v. Metzger, 234 Ill. 240. We are of the opinion that it must be conclusively presumed that the County Court being one of general jurisdiction in this class of cases must be presumed to have had jurisdiction both of the person and the subject-matter.

Counsel for appellant introduced the clerk of the County Court of Jefferson county who testified that he did not issue any notice and did not know of any notices having been served.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
199 Ill. App. 270, 1916 Ill. App. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moats-v-moore-illappct-1916.