Smith v. Smith

1937 OK 148, 69 P.2d 392, 180 Okla. 312, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 658
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 2, 1937
DocketNo. 25428.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1937 OK 148 (Smith v. Smith) 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
Smith v. Smith, 1937 OK 148, 69 P.2d 392, 180 Okla. 312, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 658 (Okla. 1937).

Opinion

PHELPS, J.

This action had its inception and grew out of the same set of facts as delineated in cause No. 24934, J. O. Cales and A. D. Krow v. Jeff Smith, Guardian of John Smith, an Incompetent, and Nannie J. Smith, 180 Okla. 315, 69 P. (2d) 384, the opinion in which has this day been filed, and to which reference is hereby made for a more complete statement of facts.

George W. Smith was the eldest child of Esther Berry Smith, and Nannie J. Smith was appointed guardian of all three minors, said guardianship proceedings being a joint guardianship with the exception that separate accounts were kept for each minor. George W. Smith reached his majority on February 24, 1930, but the guardian, Nannie J. Smith, kept on handling his affairs until March, 1931, when she filed her final account., and the same was heard and approved by the county court of Osage county on May 18, 1931.

It appears that when said final account was prepared for filing it was presented to the ward, George W. Smith, and he made the following endorsement thereon:

“I have carefully cheeked this report, and find it to be correct. The same is approved by me.” ■

It ’was also submitted to and approved *313 by tbe Superintendent of the Osage Indian Agency. Notice was given and bearing was bad. No objection or exceptions were made or filed, and tbe ward was in court at. tbe bearing, and upon bearing tbe county court, among other tilings, made tbe following order :

“It is, therefore, ordered, adjudged and decreed by tbe court, that tbe final report and account of Nannie J. Smith, covering a period of time from tbe 30th day of March, 1930, to the 27th day of March, 1931, be, and tbe same is hereby approved and confirmed in all respects and in all things.
“It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that all of tbe annual reports and accounts filed by said guardian, and all of tbe acts and doings of tbe said Nannie J. Smith, guardian of George W. Smith, during tbe period of time from tbe date of her appointment be and tbe same are hereby in all things approved and con- • firmed.
‘‘It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that Nannie J. Smith, guardian, be, and she is hereby authorized to draw a check in favor of her for her services as guardian of George W. Smith during the period of time referred to in said final report and account in the sum of $300 and she is further authorized to draw a check in the sum of $150 payable to Welcome D. Pierson, her attorney, for his services as' attorney for said guardian during the period of time shown in said final report and account.
“It is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the court that in view of the fact that it has been indicated at this hearing that new guardianship proceedings are being instituted, and a new guardian probably will be appointed for the said George W. Smith after he has been adjudged an incompetent, that she withhold the deliveries of securities she now has in her hands as guardian until after a hearing has been had with reference to the adjudication of the said George W. Smith as an incompetent, and that in event the said George W. Smith is adjudged an incompetent, and said Nannie J. Smith shall deliver to said new guardian the securities she now has in her possession and shall pay the court costs herein, including the items of expenditure referred to above and thereafter file herein her final checks, vouchers and receipts as guardian, and thereupon receive her discharge and the release of the sureties upon her official bond.
“(Seal) Henry Wood,
“County Judge.”

In obedience to this order, Nannie J. Smith, the guardian, delivered to the new guardian, .Jeff Smith, all the property in her hands belonging to said ward, including certain certificates of time deposit in the Bank of Commerce, Ralston, Okla. Then following, on the 9th day of September, 1932, Jeff Smith, the new guardian, filed suit in the district court of Osage county against the former guardian and sureties on her guardian’s bond, praying that the approval of the former guardian’s final account be set aside for fraud and that she be surcharged the amount represented by the certificates of time deposit, and from an adverse decision in that court Jeff Smith, the father and new guardian, prosecutes this appeal.

Plaintiff in error presents 21 assignments of error, some of which have been disposed of in the other eases growing out of this guardianship matter. We are unable to concur in the conclusion reached by the learned trial judge as a basis for his judgment in all respects, but after a careful examination of the record> briefs, and authorities therein cited, we conclude that the judgment must be sustained upon the third and fourth propositions presented by defendants in error, the third of which is that:

“The district court of Osage county had no jurisdiction of this case because plaintiff neither alleged nor proved fraud extrinsic to the record.”

Counsel for defendants in error in their brief cite Garrett Biblical Institute v. Minard, 82 Kan. 338, 108 P. 80, wherein the Supreme Court of Kansas had under consideration the setting aside of a judgment for fraud extrinsic to the record, and that court used this language:

“The same question was considered at length and supporting authorities cited in Plaster Co. v. Blue Rapids City Township, 81 Kan. 730, 106 P. 1079. The view adopted there was that when a party had been summoned into court, and has had an opportunity to contest an issue which goes into judgment, whether he avails himself of the opportunity or not he is not entitled to have the judgment set aside and be granted another trial of the same issues merely because the facts alleged in his petition, or the testimony offered and upon which the judgment is founded, are untrue. There would be no finality in a judgment, and rio end of litigation, if the contrary view were taken. It was stated as a general rule ‘that an act for which a court of equity will set aside or annul a judgment between the same parties, rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, has relation to fraud extrinsic or collateral to the matter tried *314 by the first court, not to fraud in the matter on which the judgment was rendered. * * * By the expression “extrinsic” or collateral fraud” is meant some “act or conduct of the prevailing party which has prevented a fair submission of the controversy.” McCormick v. McCormick (Kan.) 107 P. 546.”

We are not unmindful of the fact that in the other cases growing out of this controversy we have just held that, the investment of the ward’s funds by the guardian in certificates of time deposits in the bank were illegal investments, for which the guardian and the sureties on her bond might be held liable, particularly where such investments are neither authorized nor approved by the county court. However, in the instant case the ward had attained his majority and he had not then been declared incompetent.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1937 OK 148, 69 P.2d 392, 180 Okla. 312, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 658, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-smith-okla-1937.