United States Veterans' Bureau v. Thomas

159 S.E. 159, 156 Va. 902, 1931 Va. LEXIS 243
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedJune 18, 1931
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 159 S.E. 159 (United States Veterans' Bureau v. Thomas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States Veterans' Bureau v. Thomas, 159 S.E. 159, 156 Va. 902, 1931 Va. LEXIS 243 (Va. 1931).

Opinion

Gregory, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This case originated in a notice filed by the Veterans’ Bureau, duly served on Thomas, committee for Henry Williams, an insane person, whereby it was sought to have him removed as such committee, and asking that the order which had been entered, appointing him committee, be declared null and void and that his powers as such be revoked.

Thomas demurred to the notice, assigning two grounds, and upon a hearing upon the notice and demurrer, the demurrer was sustained by the court and the notice dismissed. It is of [904]*904this action of the court, that the Veterans’ Bureau is-now complaining.

The allegations of the notice which the trial court held insufficient, when tested by the demurrer, are as follows:

“First. That your appointment was made upon a motion of a person not interested, and who was not a member of the class of persons preferred by law.

“Second. That by virtue of section 21, World War veterans’ act, as amended by an act of May 29, 1928, and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, the undersigned, United States Veterans’ Bureau, is charged with the duty of co-operating with and assisting the courts in the selection of suitable, competent and proper persons to act as committees of estates of incompetent World War veterans, and that you are not a suitable, competent and proper person to hold the trust as committee of said Henry Williams, in that:

“(a) You were a practicing attorney and procured your appointment as committee as a result of your personal solicitation and upon representations that were not in accord with the facts.

“(b) You obtained information relative to this case while in the employ of the United States Veterans’ Bureau and made use of the same in procuring your appointment, in violation of section 190 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.

“(c) That you were an employee of the United States Veterans’ Bureau within the past two years and by reason thereof you are precluded by section 190 of the Revised Statutes of the United States from prosecuting directly or indirectly any claim before the United States Veterans’ Bureau.

“(d) That while you were in the employment of the said United States Veterans’ Bureau you, in divers cases and at different times, neglected, failed and refused to perform the duties required of you by law, and the rules and regulations of the director of the United States Veterans’ Bureau, made in pursuance thereof, relating to the appointment of committees [905]*905for incompetent World War veterans and other fiduciaries of deceased World War veterans, and the management of their estates, and that, well knowing these facts, you, after first having been requested to resign your said position and complying with said request, procured your own appointment as committee in this, and as well in divers other cases, of insane World War veterans, to-wit: Darcie Davis, George Brooks, Edgar Morris and John Moomen, sometimes called John Guyther.”

The grounds of the demurrer to the notice are as follows: (1) “That petitioner has no standing to prosecute a petition of this nature in the State of Virginia; that the acts of the petitioner in filing and prosecuting the said petition are ultra vires, the same being outside the scope of any right or power given to it under the law,” and (2) “That the alleged sections of the World War veterans’ act, as amended, referred to, have no application to the matter in controversy and are irrelevant and immaterial to the purposes of petitioner’s notice.”

The notice filed in this case was filed under the provisions of section 5417 of the Code, which reads as follows:

“The court, under whose order or under the order of whose clerk any such fiduciary derives his authority, on the application of any surety or his personal representative, shall, or when it appears proper, on such report of the clerk or a commissioner, or on evidence adduced before it by any party interested, may, at any time, whether such fiduciary shall or shall not have before given bond, or whether he shall have given one with or without sureties, order him to give, before such court, a new bond in a reasonable time to be prescribed by it, in such penalty, and with or without sureties, as may appear to it to be proper, and may, if such order be not complied with, or whenever from any cause it appears proper, revoke and annul his powers; but no such order shall be made unless reasonable notice appear to have been given to such fiduciary by the commissioner who made such report, or by the surety or his representative making the application aforesaid, or by the service [906]*906of a rule or otherwise, and no such order or revocation shall invalidate any previous act of such fiduciary.”

The principal issue presented for decision is whether the Veterans’ Bureau has the right and power to file and prosecute this notice for the removal of Thomas, committee, under section 5417 of the Code.

In determining the soundness of the ruling of the court in sustaining the demurrer, it is well to bear in mind that section 6118 of the Code provides that: “On a demurrer (unless it be to a plea in abatement) the court shall not regard any defect or imperfection in the declaration or other pleading, whether it has been heretofore deemed mispleading or insufficient pleading or not, unless there be omitted something so essential to the action or defense, that judgment, according to law and the very right of the cause, cannot be given * *

It is also well to bear in mind that this court has frequently held that any notice will be upheld where it contains suificient substance to inform the defendant of the nature of the claim or demand made against him and contains sufficient facts, regardless of how informally stated, to enable a court to determine that if those facts are proved, the plaintiff is entitled to- prevail.

Therefore, if the Veterans’ Bureau is an “interested party” the notice in form is sufficient. If it had been insufficient in this respect or if Thomas thought it did not contain sufficient facts, it was the duty of the court to have granted the Veterans’ Bureau the right to amend its notice or required it to furnish Thomas, committee,, with a bill of particulars.

' One of the purposes for which the United States Veterans’ Bureau was created was to provide relief for those veterans who were disabled as a result of the World War, and to provide compensation or pensions for them. It is a responsible agency of the United States government. The ward of the committee here is. entitled to compensation for his disability and it is conceded that he has not received it. The Veterans’ [907]*907Bureau is withholding payment because it believes that the committee, who' has been appointed to receive and disburse the money for Williams, is not a suitable person to perform this service.

It has been most strongly urged that the Veterans’ Bureau has no' standing in Virginia courts in matters of this kind, but we find that the General Assembly of 1928, by an act which is carried in the Code as section 1050a, has fully recognized the standing and right of the Veterans’ Bureau to proceed in our courts in matters of this nature. By that act it was provided that:

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Bluebook (online)
159 S.E. 159, 156 Va. 902, 1931 Va. LEXIS 243, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-veterans-bureau-v-thomas-va-1931.