Skinner v. Maryland Casualty Co.

1938 OK 349, 82 P.2d 1001, 183 Okla. 459, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 309
Supreme Court of Oklahoma·Decided May 17, 1938·No. No. 27999.·Published

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This appeal is presented from the district court of Payne county. The parties occupy the same positions here as they did in the trial court and will hereafter be referred to as plaintiff and defendant.

The action was brought to compel the administrator of a former guardian and the surety on said guardian’s bond to account for and to pay to the plaintiff certain moneys which had allegedly been wrongfully expended. Trial was had to the court sitting in equity. The findings of fact and conclusions of law made and reached by the trial court were adverse to the plaintiff, and she appeals from the judgment which denied her a recovery. The essential facts are not in dispute. The plaintiff, Austie Arline Skinner, a minor and a daughter of W. H. Skinner and Celia Skinner, was named as the beneficiary in a certain policy of insurance upon the life of W. H. Skinner, and also as devisee of certain real property under his last will and testament. The said W. H. Skinner departed this life, and Celia Skinner, nominated in the will as executrix thereof, duly qualified as such. Thereafter said Celia Skinner was appointed guardian of the person and estate of the plaintiff; and the defendant, under a joint control agreement, executed as surety the required guardian’s bond in the penal sum of $1,000. The said Celia Skinner, as guardian of the plaintiff, thereupon collected the $1,000 due under the insurance policy and of which the plaintiff was beneficiary. The property devised to the plaintiff by the will of W. I-I. Skinner was encumbered by a mortgage which had been executed by the said W. H. Skinner and Celia Skinner to secure an indebtedness in the principal sum of $1.200. Under paragraph 6 of the last will and testament of W. H. Skinner, the executrix was directed to pay and discharge said mortgage indebtedness against the property devised to the plaintiff without cost to the estate of the testator. In order to accomplish this, the said Celia Skinner, as guardian of the *460 estate of the plaintiff!, applied to the county court for authority to use the money which she had collected under the insurance policy. Upon the assurance of said Oelia Skinner and her attorney that W. H. Skinner in his lifetime had expressed the desire that the money obtained from the insurance on his life and in favor of the plaintiff should be used in discharging the encumbrance on the property which he had devised to the plaintiff, the county court made an order authorizing the payment of said insurance money to the discharge of the mortgage upon the property which had been devised to the plaintiff. In accordance with this order, $1,000 belonging-' to the plaintiff was paid upon said mortgage by cheek drawn by the guardian and countersigned by the defendant. Subsequently the plaintiff’s former guardian departed this life and it developed that the estate of W. H. Skinner was insolvent, and in consequence thereof the property which had been devised to the plaintiff was sold to pay debts of W. H. Skinner’s estate and was thus entirely lost to the plaintiff. Upon the death of the said Celia Skinner the present guardian of the plaintiff was appointed administrator de bonis non of the estate of W. H. Skinner, and in such capacity caused the lands which had been devised to the plaintiff to be sold to pay debts of the estate of W. H. Skinner. No claim for subrogation on behalf of the plaintiff appears to have been interposed nor any effort to marshal assets and thus save to the plaintiff the property which had been devised to her appears to have been made. The administrator of the estate of Celia Skinner was made a party to the present action, but was never served with summons, and the surety has been called upon in this action to shoulder all liability in connection with the transaction.

The plaintiff, as grounds for reversal of the judgment of the trial court, urges, in substance, that the application of her money to the discharge of a mortgage for which she was in no manner liable amounted to a legal fraud, and that the finding of the trial court to the contrary is against the clear weight of the evidence. The trial court found, in Substance, that in making the expenditure the plaintiff’s former guardian acted in good faith and under the advice of attorney and pursuant to a valid order of the county court. Plaintiff in her briefs, in effect, concedes that her former guardian was not guilty of actual fraud or bad faith in the transaction. Decision, therefore, depends upon whether the county court had jurisdiction to authorize the expenditure. If the order was a valid one, the guardian and her bondsmen were protected. McDougal v. Kersey, 108 Okla. 231, 236 P. 7.

The court in the case of In re Campbell’s Guardianship, 1G9 Okla. 47, 35 P.2d 884, 95 A. L. R. 836, held:

“Under section 1267, O. S. 1931 (1260, C. O. S. 1921), where a minor inherits an undivided interest in real estate which, together with the other undivided interests in said real estate, is subject to a blanket lien or liens, the county judge, upon statutory application and showing, may authorize the guardian of said minor to join with the other owners of said real estate in executing a blanket mortgage upon all of said real estate, and to bind his ward’s undivided interest, together with the aggregate interest, for the entire indebtedness, where the purpose of executing said mortgage is to pay off or secure a release of the existing blanket lien or liens.”

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Skinner v. Maryland Casualty Co., 1938 OK 349, 82 P.2d 1001, 183 Okla. 459, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 309 (Okla. 1938).

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Related

In Re Campbell's Guardianship
1934 OK 420 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1934)
McDougal v. Kersey
1924 OK 379 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1924)
Interstate Bldg. & Loan Co. v. Oklahoma City
1921 OK 82 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1921)