Smith v. Walker

58 S.W.2d 946, 187 Ark. 161, 1933 Ark. LEXIS 353
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 3, 1933
Docket4-2955
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 58 S.W.2d 946 (Smith v. Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Walker, 58 S.W.2d 946, 187 Ark. 161, 1933 Ark. LEXIS 353 (Ark. 1933).

Opinion

Mehaffy, J.

This suit was begun in the Union Chancery Court by Bellé Walker and her husband, G. P. Walker, against the appellant, J. M. Smith.

Appellee, at one time owned an interest in certain real estate in Gregg County, Texas. This land became valuable oil producing property. The appellee, prior to December, 1931, had executed conveyances to all of her interests in these lands. In an effort to recover some interest in the property, she gave a power of attorney to J. R. Cheek.

The appellant learned that the appellee had some interest in oil lands in Texas, and he went to see her about representing her in recovering her interest in the lands. He was told at the time he visited her that she had entered into contracts with other parties, but he finally entered into a contract with the Walkers to represent them for one-half of what he recovered, and appellees say that he was to “knock out these other parties.”

The Walkers, at this time, lived at Texarkana, and the appellant brought them to El Dorado and secured an order of the probate court of Union County declaring appellee insane, and appointing appellant as her guardian. Appellant filed a bond as guardian in the sum of $200, with G. F. Walker, husband of Belle Walker, and Walter L. Brown, attorney, as his sureties. After appellant was appointed guardian, he entered into a contract with Walter L. Brown, attorney, to represent him in recovering his ward’s interest in the property in Texas, and agreed to pay Brown one-half of any amount recovered. Brown then employed the appellant to investigate the facts.

Suit was thereafter instituted in the district court of Gregg County, Texas, by Walter L. Brown as next friend of Belle Walker, an insane person. Appellant was a party to this suit, both in his individual capacity and as guardian.

On December 5, 1931, the court heard evidence and adjudged Belle Walker sane, and the Sinclair Oil & Gas Company was ordered to pay $15,000 to clear the property of the Walker claim; $7,500 to Cheek, who held power of attorney from appellee, and $7,500 to Belle Walker. The Sinclair Oil & Gas Company gave Cheek and Belle Walker each a. draft for $7,500. Walter L. Brown, after appellee had indorsed her draft and delivered it to him, gave her his check for $3,750. Brown indorsed the Sinclair draft and delivered it to appellant with instructions to deposit $3,750 to Brown’s account to cover the Walker check. Appellant paid Brown $600 and a lawyer in Texas, where the case was tried, $300, and of the $3,750, the appellant received $2,850 in addition to what he paid the attorneys.

On January 11,1932, after the decree of the court in Texas finding Belle Walker to be sane, the probate court of Union County, Arkansas, declared her sane. In June, 1932, after appellee ha'd been declared sane by the Union County probate court, this action was begun against appellant to recover $2,850.

Appellant filed a demurrer to the complaint alleging that the court had no jurisdiction, and filed answer alleging that as a matter of fact Belle Walker never was insane, and that she was adjudged sane by the district court of Gregg County, Texas; denied that he collected any money for her as guardian or otherwise; denied that he had converted $3,750 to his own use, and denied his insolvency. The chancery court found in favor of appellee in the sum of $2,882.22, and the case is here on appeal.

The appellee, when she brought suit, caused writs of garnishment to be issued against the banks, and two of the banks answered showing the money appellant had on deposit, and the court also ordered that the contents of the safety deposit box in the First National Bank of El Dorado be impounded, etc.

The appellant who, as guardian, made the contract with Brown, the attorney, was not a lawyer, but a physician practicing at Smackover, Arkansas. Appellant claims that he spent about five or six weeks in Texas investigating the matter, and spent considerable money.. He does not, however, testify as to what he spent money for, nor does he claim to have kept any account of the amounts expended. Mr. Brown made a trip out to Texas when the suit was tried in Gregg County, but he spent very little, and is not claiming anything in this suit.

It is earnestly contended by appellant that the probate court alone had jurisdiction, and he relies on the Constitution and laws of Arkansas. The constitutional provision relied on reads as follows: “The judge of the county court shall be the judge of the court of probate, and have such exclusive original jurisdiction in matters relative to the probate of wills, the estates of deceased persons, executors, administrators, guardians and persons of unsound mind and their estates as is now vested in the circuit court, or may be hereafter prescribed by law.” Constitution, article 7, § 34.

The statute quoted and relied on is § 2256, and reads as follows: “The court of probate shall have original jurisdiction in the following cases:

“First. In all matters relating to the probate of last wills and testaments, the estate of deceased persons, executors, administrators, guardians, and persons of unsound mind and their estates.
“Second. In the settlement and allowance of the accounts of executors, administrators and guardians.”

This suit did not involve the estate of a person of unsound mind, because both the Texas court and the probate court of Union County had declared the appellee sane, and the appellant himself testified that she had never been insane. Therefore this suit did not involve a person of unsound mind, or the estate of a person of unsound mind. It did not involve any settlement or allowance of the accounts of executors, administrators or guardians, and therefore the authorities relied on by appellant have no application.

It was not claimed by the appellant in this suit that the appellee was insane. There is no doubt from the record that the guardian was appointed for Belle Walker for no other purpose than to assist in getting the conveyances theretofore made by Belle Walker set aside, so that she might recover her interests in the Texas lands. There was nothing for the probate court to do, and this suit does not involve any matters that are within the jurisdiction of the probate court.

“The courts of chancery have no power to take such cases out of the probate courts, for the purpose of proceeding with the administration. But their power and functions to relieve against fraud, accident, mistake or impending irremediable mischief, is universal; extending over suitors in all courts, and over the decrees of those courts, obtained by fraud, .or rendered under circumstances which render it inequitable that they should be inforced. Hence any frauds in the settlements of administrators or executors may be corrected. When that is done, if there be still a necessity for continued proceedings in the course of administration, such proceeding should go on in the probate court, upon the basis of the reformed settlement. The object of chancery intervention having been accomplished, the jurisdiction in equity should cease with the necessity.

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Bluebook (online)
58 S.W.2d 946, 187 Ark. 161, 1933 Ark. LEXIS 353, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-walker-ark-1933.