Short v. Dunn

1937 OK 180, 67 P.2d 18, 180 Okla. 21, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 542
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 16, 1937
DocketNo. 27600.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1937 OK 180 (Short v. Dunn) 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
Short v. Dunn, 1937 OK 180, 67 P.2d 18, 180 Okla. 21, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 542 (Okla. 1937).

Opinion

RILEY, J.

This is an original action wherein a writ of prohibition is sought to prohibit respondents from proceeding further in the administration of petitioner’s property and estate under 'an order made by respondent Jesse H. Dunn, county judge, July 1, 1935, appointing respondent Hattie Ellen Short guardian of the person and estate of petitioner.

The petition for the writ is long and involved. Matters are alleged 'at length concerning proceedings had prior to the order of July 1, 1935', setting forth alleged irregularities, mismanagement and waste of property and estate under fiormer guardianship proceedings wherein respondent W. W. Short was guardian.

The petition and exhibits, certified copies of the proceedings leading up to the appointment of the guardian here in question, show substantially th!at on October 5, 1934, respondent Hattie Ellen Short and Brunella Short, her daughter, alleged to have been acting at the instance of W. W. Short, and under thre'ats to disinherit them, filed a petition in the county court of Murray county to have petitioner adjudged insane and committed to the Central State Hospital at Norman; that respondent Jesse H. Dunn, as county judge, set siaid petition for hearing on October 6, 1934, at 9:30 o’clock a. m.; that no notice of any kind or character was served upon petitioner; that on October 6, 1934, without any notice whatever to petitioner, said county judge heard said petition and found and adjudged petitioner to be insane and committed her to the hospital at Norman. The sheriff executed said order and commitment on the same diay; that petitioner remained in said hospital until about January 18, 1935, at. which time she was transferred to the Eastern Hospital at Vinitia. It is alleged that the transfer was at the instance of W. W. Short.

While said petitioner was confined at the hospital at Vinita, respondent Hattie Ellen Short filed a petition in the county court of Murray county to have herself appointed guardian. This petition was also heard, and an order was m'ade appointing I-Iattie Ellen Short guardian without any notice whatever to petitioner. This latter proceeding was conceded to be void, and the court, later, upon the petition of the guardian, vadated said order. In the meantime the so-called guardian had sold a p'art of petitioner’s land for $800, and no accounting had been made of the money.

The petition to vacate the appointment was filed June 21, 1935, and an order w'as entered the same day vacating the appointment. No .final account appears to have been filed. On the s!ame day a new petition was filed seeking the appointment of Hattie Ellen Short as guardian of the person and estate of petitioner. This petition was set for hearing for July 1, 1935, and the county judge entered an order appointing the medical superintendent of the hospit/al at Vinita to serve notice thereof upon petitioner. Said notice was served by the superintendent by delivering a copy thereof to petitioner on June 24, 1935, as shown by his affidavit. Said petition was heard on July 1, 1935, and an order was m'ade appointing the guardian as prayed. Petitioner was not present at this hearing and was not represented by any person. The county judge entered an order excusing her presence on the ground that she was an inmate of the hospital at Vinita, and unable to attend for that reason. Hattie Ellen Short was again appointed guardian 'and qualified as such, giving a bond with W. W. Short and another as sureties. Thereafter she completed sale of an oil and gas lease covering 5CK) acres of petitioner’s land, and it appears proceedings are pending for the sale of a portion of the land. Thereafter, on June 18, 1936, petitioner was paroled and released from the hospital.

On or about October 17, 1936, petitioner filed in the county court a motion to -Vacate, set aside, and hold for naught the order of the court of July 1, 1935, appointing the guardian, upon the ground that the order was void for the reasons: (a) That the notice required by section 1445, O. S. 1931, was not issued 'and served upon petitioner as required by law, in that petitioner was illegally restrained of her liberty at the time, and held in the custody of the officials of the hospital by virtue of a void commitment; that the oourt did not have jurisdiction to commit petitioner to the State Hospital on October 9, 1934, for want of notice, etc.; (b) that the notice of hearing the petition to appoint the guardian was void for the reason that the superintendent of the hospital was authorized to serve notice only upon persons leghlly committed thereto; (c) that the purported order excusing the presence of petitioner at the hearing was a nullity, because the judge of the county court well knew that petitioner had been illegally committed, and it was for that reason she could not 'attend; and (d) that her illegal commitment to the hospital was the result of a conspiracy to deprive petitioner of her property and permit her husband, W. W. *23 Short, to enjoy the same. This motion was heard October 29, 1936, and denied.

The appearance docket shows th'at petitioner excepted to the order denying- the motion and gaye notice of appeal. The order denying the motion shows exceptions saved, bnt does not show notice of intent to appeal.

The petition for the writ was filed in this court November 27, 1936, and we assume no hppeal was taken from the order denying the motion to vacate the appointment of guardian.

Petitioner assorts in her petition here that she has fully recovered her competency. This, however, was not one of the grounds set up in the motion to vacate the order appointing guhrdian.

Response is filed in which they rely upon the regularity of the proceeding for the appointment of the guardian, and admit the filing of the motion in the county court to vacate, and its denial, and assert that petitioner’s sole remedy w'as by appeal, and that the writ of prohibition will not issue as a substitute for appeal.

The record contains complete certified copies of the proceedings of the petition to inquire into the sanity of petitioner, -as well as those going to appointment of the guardian.

Under Ex parte Schaeffer, 177 Okla. 464. 60 P. (2d) 1037, the order of October 6, 1934, finding petitioner insane and committing her to the Central State Hospital at Norman was wholly void. It was there held:

‘•Under statute, service of notice of sanity hearing on person alleged to be insane is essential, unless court or judge thereof dispenses with service and states in certificate to be attached lo petition its reason for dispensing therewith. (St. 1931, sec. 5005; Const. Okla. art. 2, sec. 7; Const. U. S. Amend. 14.)

And:

“Failure to comply with statutory requirements of personal service of notice of hearing on petition for inquiry into s’anity held to render order of commitment to hospital invalid as denial of due process.”

There was no service of notice' in this case, as in that case. If the question were one alone of the commitment of petitioner to the State Hospital, no further discussion-would be necessary.

The re'ál • question presented is whether. .und 'r the'circumstances shown by the rre-on!. ’here wjk- notice sufficient; to give 'the coun'y court jurisdiction to appoint the guardian under the petition filed June 21, 1935.

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Bluebook (online)
1937 OK 180, 67 P.2d 18, 180 Okla. 21, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 542, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/short-v-dunn-okla-1937.