Southwestern Surety Ins. Co. v. Richard

1917 OK 19, 162 P. 468, 62 Okla. 122, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 258
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 2, 1917
Docket7520
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1917 OK 19 (Southwestern Surety Ins. Co. v. Richard) 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
Southwestern Surety Ins. Co. v. Richard, 1917 OK 19, 162 P. 468, 62 Okla. 122, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 258 (Okla. 1917).

Opinion

Opinion by

JOHNSON, C.

Upon August 19, 1911. an order was entered in the county court of Muskogee county, appointing Ben H. Richard as guardian of the persons and estates of Redfield P. Richard, Parthenia A. Richard, Mary E. Richard, Hazel B. Richard, and Shelby C. Richard, minors, and requiring the guardian to give a $2,000 bond. Upon August 21, 1911, prior to the execution of his bond as such guardian, or the issuance of letters of guardianship, the said Ben H. Richard, as such guardian, filed in said court his petition for authority to sell certain lands of the said Parthenia A. Richard. After regular notice of the hearing of such last mentioned petition, on September 19, 1911, the said county court entered an order for the sale of such real estate. .While it did not so áppear in the records of the coun.ty court, and seemingly was not known at the time by any of the interested parties or by the court, it now appears that the said Par-thenia A. Richard arrived at her majority on October 5, 1911, prior to the sale by the guardian and before ’ the other proceedings hereinafter mentioned. On October 9, 1911, the said Ben H. Richard, as guardian, proceeded to sell such real estate in accordance with such decree of sale, making his return of the sale on October 11, 1911, and the sale was confirmed by the said court, after regular notice, on November 1, 1911. It seems that at the timé of the sale the purchase price of the land, being $2,525, was paid into the court for the guardian.

On November 15, 1911, after the confirmation of sale., it seems to have been discovered by the court that the guardian had not executed his regular guardianship bond (it also appearing that no additional sale bond had been executed), and had not received let ters of guardianship; and on that date an order was entered requiring the guardian to give bond to the minors in said cause in the sum of $3,000, before he should receive from the court the said proceeds of such sale, Pursuant to this order, on November 15, 1911, the said Ben H. Richard, as such guardian, as principia!, with the Southwestern Surety Insurance Company, a corporate surety for hire, executed and filed his guardianship bond to the minors in said cause in the sum of $3,000. Letters of guardianship were then issued to the said Ben H. Richard on the persons and estates of the persons hereinabove named as the. minors involved in said cause, and the said proceeds of the sale of the Parthenia A. Richard land were delivered by the court to the guardian.

Upon November 22, 1911, the said Ben H Richard filed in said county court his final report of the guardianship of the said Par-thenia A. Richard, showing no receipts of *123 moneys except the proceeds of such sale of real estate, and showing a balance thereof due the minor in the sum of $1,786.21, which final account was approved -by the court on January 3, 1912, the order approving such account not having been appealed from and having become final.

On July 31, 1912, the said Ben H. Richard, guardian, died insolvent; on May 29, 1913, Parthenia A. Richard commenced this action in the superior court of Muskogee county against the Southwestern Surety Insurance Company, surety as aforesaid, for the recovery of $1,736.21, the balance due by the said Ben H. Richard, as her guardian, as shown by such approved final report, together with accrued interest; on August 9, 1913, the said Parthenia A. Richard died, the cause being revived in the name of Esther Richard, her administratrix; and on January 29, 1914, the said Esther Richard died, the cause being again revived, in the name of the present plaintiff, Redfield P. Richard, as administrator of the estate of Parthenia A. Richard, deceased.

At the trial in the superior court, on January 26, 1915, a demurrer was sustained to the evidence of plaintiff, and judgment rendered in favor of the surety company. Motion for new trial, having been filed in regular time, was sustained, and the judgment set aside by the lower court on February 5, 1915, upon the following grounds expressed in the order, viz.: (1) That a final receipt from the said Parthenia A. Richard to her said purported guardian, pleaded by defendant, had been admitted to have been obtained without consideration; and (2) that the order of the county court, approving the final report of the guardian, was conclusive on the guardian and his surety, and that the surety is estopped to deny liability on the bond. Prom the order granting the new trial, the surety company has appealed to this court.

The surety company contends that the said Parthenia A. Richard having attained majority on October 5, 1911, the guardianship ceased at that time to exist, and the county court lost jurisdiction of her estate except for the purpose of requiring a settlement by the guardian for funds received by the guardian during the minority of the ward; that after that date the said Parthenia A. Richard had the right to sell her own lands without the intervention of a guardian; that the sale by the guardian after her arrival at majority was void; that no title passed thereby; and that the proceeds of the sale' did not rightfully pass to the ward’s estate, but still remained the property of the purchaser. These contentions are included in the first and third propositions argued by plaintiff in error.

We are of opinion that the surety is bound by the order of the county court, settling the accounts of the guardian, and is estopped to set up the invalidity of the proceedings.

In the case of Boudinot et al. v. Locust et al., 55 Okla. 662, 151 Pac. 579, which was a suit on the bond of an administrator, it was alleged by the surety that the moneys sought to have been recovered were the pfo-ceeds of oil and gas royalties from lands allotted to the heirs of the decedent, a Cherokee Indian, that neither the decedent nor his estate had any interest in such funds, but that same belonged to the heirs as originally acquired property. However, such moneys were received by the administrator, and included in his final account as estate funds. In that case this court said:

“Where an administrator of the estate of a deceased person petitions the county court having jurisdiction of the estate for an order directing certain parties or persons to turn over to him as such administrator certain funds, and the court sustains such petition ■and enters said order, and the administrator receives and accepts said funds as such administrator, held, that neither the administrator nor the sureties on his bond will be permitted thereafter, in a suit against them to recover such funds, to deny that said funds were received by said administrator in his fiduciary capacity, nor will they be permitted in such a proceeding, under such circumstances, to deny that said administrator wks legally appointed as such.”

In the case of Henry v. Melton, 46 Okla. 278, 148 Pac. 730, the guardian sold certain supposed interests of his ward in certain lands, receiving the proceeds. His final report, including such funds, was approved by the county court and not appealed from. In a suit on the guardian’s bond, the surety set up that the lands sold and the proceeds thereof were claimed by, and were the property of, the father of the ward; and this court, quoting the rule from other cases by this court, said:

“ ‘Guardian’s Bond — Sureties—Final Set tlement — Oonclusiveness.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1917 OK 19, 162 P. 468, 62 Okla. 122, 1917 Okla. LEXIS 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southwestern-surety-ins-co-v-richard-okla-1917.