State ex rel. Coleman v. Peckham

36 N.E. 28, 136 Ind. 198, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 135
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 5, 1894
DocketNo. 16,434
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 36 N.E. 28 (State ex rel. Coleman v. Peckham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Coleman v. Peckham, 36 N.E. 28, 136 Ind. 198, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 135 (Ind. 1894).

Opinion

Howard, C. J.

This was a suit brought by the relatrix, in the name of the State, against the appellees, being her former guardian and the sureties on his bond, charging fraud in said guardian’s settlement account, asking that said account be set aside, and that she be awarded judgment in the sum of twelve thousand dollars.

The appellees answered by a general denial, and also in a special plea by way of confession and avoidance.

The relatrix demurred to the special plea as not stating facts sufficient to constitue a defense to the complaint.

The appellees then withdrew their answer in general denial, and the court overruled the demurrer to the special answer, but held the demurrer to relate back to, and sustained it to, the complaint.

The relatrix electing to stand by her complaint, this appeal followed.

The errors discussed by counsel relate to the sufficiency of the complaint.

From the allegations of the complaint, it appears, amongst other things, that in March, 1872, the appellee William S. Peckham was duly appointed guardian of the relatrix, then a minor; that he executed the bond set out with the complaint, on which his coappellees are also liable; that he continued to act as such guardian until the 1st day of February, 1875, during which time he received, as such guardian, the sum of seven thous- [200]*200and dollars, the property of his ward; that on June 22, 1872, he loaned to a copartnership, known as the Lafayette Paper Company, the sum of five thousand dollars out of his said ward’s funds, without authority of law and without an order of court, but solely upon his own motion, and took from said borrowers for such loan their note, signed only by said firm and by the individual members thereof, payable in twelve months, and without any security whatever; that from time to time, as the loans matured, the said guardian renewed the same, and took in like manner notes therefor, without security, until the 15th day of December, 1874, when he again renewed the loan for six months, taking a note signed by the copartnership and its members, as before, payable to himself, as guardian, without security, and due in six months.

It is averred that during the time these loans and renewals were made the money could have been readily loaned in the city of Lafayette, where said guardian and ward resided, at ten per cent, interest, and upon good first mortgage real estate security.

It is further alleged, that on said 1st day of February, 1875, said guardian filed in the Tippecanoe- Circuit Court his report as guardian, representing, amongst other things, that part of his ward’s estate consisted “of a note for $5,000 signed by Lafayette Paper Mill Company, W. A. Potter, Samuel Favorite, H. T. Sample and Fred Geiger, dated December 15, 1874, and that it would be adverse to the interest of his ward to disturb the investment made by him;” that in said report he tendered his resignation as such guardian, and asked the court to approve said investment; that the court did accept and approve said report, and also accepted the resignation of said guardian, and' ordered that he should be discharged from all further liability on account of his said trust.

[201]*201The complaint further avers, that said report was false and misleading in this, that it was not adverse to the interest of said ward, that said investment of $5,000 upon the unsecured note.of said copartnership should be undisturbed; but, on the contrary, at the time of making said report, and also on said 15th day of December, 1874, when said note was made, and for a long time before, the said firm and each member thereof were insolvent, which fact the said guardian well knew, but failed and omitted to inform the court of said fact; and failed and omitted to inform the court that said paper mill company was unincorporated, and was only a private co-partnership, composed only of the signers of said note, and that the safety of said assets of said ward required that prompt steps should be taken to collect or secure the same, which fact was true and well known to said guardian, because of which insolvency said sum of money has become wholly lost; that said guardian in and by said report and resignation did not inform the court that said note of said firm was for moneys of said ward theretofore loaned by him as such guardian to said firm; that said report was filed and said order of court was made ex parte and without the knowledge or consent of said ward, and is wrongful and oppressive; that on the day of his said discharge said guardian assigned, without recourse on himself, said note to his successor.

It is first contended by counsel, that the order of the Tippecanoe Circuit Court approving the final report and accepting the resignation of the guardian was an adjudication of the claim here made by the relatrix.

In Wainwright v. Smith, 106 Ind. 239, it was held that it is not necessary that the approval of a guardian’s report in final settlement should be set aside in order to maintain an action against the guardian for negligence, unless the approval of the report was in some way an [202]*202adjudication of the matters of which complaint is made; that the approval of such settlement report is an adjudication of all matters involved in, or which properly belong to, the proper accounting of moneys with which the guardian was chargeable; but that such approval does not adjudicate the subject of the guardian’s negligence in the management of the ward’s estate, unless that subject is embraced in the report. See, also, Naugle v. State, ex rel., 101 Ind. 284.

The rule thus laid down as to final settlement reports, and when the ward has arrived at full age, must prevail even more strongly in case of ex parte orders made from time to time during the pendency of the guardianship, and while .the ward is yet incapable of acting for himself.

Of such ex parte orders, it is said, in the case of State, ex rel., v. Wheeler, 127 Ind. 451, that whether made by the court by way of direction to the guardian, or of approval of action theretofore taken by him, they are, like those made in the settlement of an estate, to be regarded as prima facie correct, but are, as a rule, within the control of the court making them until final settlement of the guardianship; and that such orders may, at all times before final settlement and discharge of the guardian, be set aside, corrected, or modified, if the requirements of justice demand it.

Because the guardian in this case, on making the report in question, resigned his trust and was discharged by the court, it is contended that the settlement thus made was a final settlement. This can not be correct. It is true that the guardian thus withdrew himself from his trust, and was relieved as to all subsequent liability therein; but the guardianship itself continued, and, as to that, the settlement made was only partial and its approval ex parte.

[203]*203As to estates, it has been expressly decided by this court that the final report of an outgoing administrator or executor, resigning his trust before settlement of the estate, and the approval of such report, followed by his discharge by the court, do not constitute the “final report” contemplated by the statute, and, therefore, are no bar to an action on the bond of such administrator or executor. Parsons, Admr., v. Milford, Admr., 67 Ind. 489.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 N.E. 28, 136 Ind. 198, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 135, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-coleman-v-peckham-ind-1894.