New York Life Insurance v. Gilmore

149 S.E. 799, 40 Ga. App. 431, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 184
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 4, 1929
Docket19205, 19209
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 149 S.E. 799 (New York Life Insurance v. Gilmore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New York Life Insurance v. Gilmore, 149 S.E. 799, 40 Ga. App. 431, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 184 (Ga. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Stephens, J.

1. A judgment of a court of record, although rendered in a matter in which the court has jurisdiction, can not be “relied on as an estoppel, or as establishing any particular state of facts of which it was the judicial result,” except by proof of the proceedings on which the [432]*432judgment was rendered. Gibson v. Robinson, 90 Ga. 756 (16 S. E. 969, 35 Am. St. R. 250). This is clearly distinguishable from cases such as Sharpe v. Hodges, 121 Ga. 798 (49 S. E. 775), where it was held, in effect, that a judgment can not be collaterally attacked by evidence tending to impeach the record upon which the judgment was based.

2. An ordinary has no jurisdiction to appoint a guardian, where the law requires a citation, except after the issuance of citation as required by law. Civil Code (1910), § 3046; Torrance v. McDougald, 12 Ga. 526; Perkins v. Attaway, 14 Ga. 27. Where citation has not issued as required by law, the judgment appointing a person as guardian is a nullity, and can be collaterally attacked in any proceeding in which the judgment, or the letters of guardianship issued thereon, are relied upon as establishing the legal appointment of the guardian. Rusk v. Hill, 117 Ga. 722 (6) (45 S. E. 42); Fussell v. Dennard, 118 Ga. 270 (45 S. E. 247); Sturtevant v. Robinson, 133 Ga. 564 (6) (66 S. E. 890); Bell v. Love, 72 Ga. 125. The case of Cuyler v. Wayne, 64 Ga. 79, where it was held that the grant of letters of guardianship, in the absence of the required bond of the guardian, is not void, is distinguishable. See Dooley v. Bell, 87 Ga. 74 (13 S. E. 284). Letters of guardianship issued by the ordinary are not conclusive of the legality of the judgment appointing the guardian, hut constitute prima facie evidence only of the legal appointment of the guardian. Perkins v. Attaway, supra. Where it appears from the records of the court of ordinary that the application for the appointment, and the order of appointment and letters of guardianship were issued on the same (lay, and therefore without the required citation, the judgment and the letters were nullities.

3. Although the. person appointed as guardian by the ordinary is the guardian named by the father of the ward in a will, the judgment, the appointment, and the lelters of guardianship issued.thereon are nevertheless invalid and nullities, where the citation ronuired by law as a condition precedent to the appointment of a guardian has not been made. A testamentary guardian as such can not legally act as guardian for his ward as respects property derived from sources other than the will, without having given bond as required under section 3033 of the Civil Code of 1910. Poe v. Schley, 16 Ga. 364.

4. Where a minor under fourteen years of age is entitled, as a beneficiary under a policy of insurance issued upon the life of her father, to receive the proceeds of the policy, a testamentary guardian of her property, appointed by the father’s will, who has not given bond as required under section 3033 of the Civil Code of 1910, and who has not, after citation as required in section 3046 of the Civil Code of 1910, been legally appointed as a general guardian to receive the property of the ward, is not entitled to receive the money. Whore the insurance company in good faith paid the proceeds of the policy to the testamentary guardian, in ignorance, of the fact that the guardian had not given the legally required bond, the minor on becoming of age can, within the statutory period of limitation, recover from the. insurance company on the policy, except whatever amount the defendant may 'legally set off against the plaintiff’s claim. See Southwestern Railroad Co. v. Chap[433]*433man, 46 Ga. 538; Southwestern Railroad Co. v. Chapman, 46 Ga. 557. If tlie defendant could set off any expenditure made by the guardian which inured to the ward’s benefit, where the guardian had administered the funds without having qualified to do so, the defendant could not set off any expenditure which the guardian could not legally make, . and which could not have been legally made by the testamentary guardian to whom the funds had been paid had the guardian been a legally appointed guardian and had given the required bond and was therefore legally qualified to administer the fuuds. See note, 33 L. R. A. 759 et seq.

5. The administration by a guardian of funds which he is not legally qualified to administer, as where a testamentary guardian, without having given the required bond, administers funds in his possession belonging to his testamentary ward which the ward has acquired from a source other than the will, is not a legal administration of the ward’s funds. Such an administration is a mere nullity, and amounts only to a handling of the ward’s money by an individual who has no right to possess or handle it. Therefore no act of his in attempting to administer the estate as guardian is a legal act, or is an act binding upon the ward.

6. In a suit by the ward, after becoming of age, against a person who has paid money belonging to the plaintiff to the testamentary guardian', who was not legally qualified to receive and administer it as the ward’s guardian, where the defense interposed by the defendant was that the guardian applied the money to the ward’s benefit in the manner required of a guardian legally entitled to administer it, tlrg burden was upon the defendant to show that the guardian had so applied the money. Although the guardian may in good faith have disposed of a part of the funds by investing a portion of them in real estate for the benefit of the ward, who afterwards, during minority, occupied the real estate as a home, there is no presumption that these expenditures were legally made by the guardian’s having obtained from the judge of the superior court an order for the investment of the funds in real estate, as required under section 4008 of the Civil Code of 1910.

7. Where it does not appear from the evidence that the guardian obtained from the superior court an order to invest the ward’s money in real estate, the evidence is insufficient to show that the investment by the guardian of the ward’s funds was a legal expenditure of the funds and that the money of the ward so invested was legally applied to the ward’s benefit.

8. Where the ward’s estate in the possession of the guardian and administered by him consisted of money only, although some of it had been illegally invested by him in real estate, expenditures on the real estate, made by the guardian out of the ward’s money, such as for taxes, fire-insurance, and improvements on the real estate and for labor in connection therewith, were illegal expenditures of the ward’s money. The expenditure by the guardian of the ward’s money for medical services, proof of death, and funeral expenses of the ward’s father, were not for the benefit of the ward, and were therefore illegal expenditures of [434]*434the ward’s money.

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Fuller v. Weekes
125 S.E.2d 662 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1962)
Daniels v. Metropolitan Life Insurance
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185 S.E. 828 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1936)
Davis v. Melton
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New York Life Insurance v. Gilmore
159 S.E. 288 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1931)
Paulk v. Roberts
155 S.E. 55 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1930)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
149 S.E. 799, 40 Ga. App. 431, 1929 Ga. App. LEXIS 184, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-life-insurance-v-gilmore-gactapp-1929.