Hansen v. Gossett, 15471
| Decision Date | 05 February 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 15471,15471 |
| Citation | 590 P.2d 1258 |
| Parties | Robert B. HANSEN, guardian ad litem for Beverly Gossett, an Incompetent, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. William P. GOSSETT, Defendant and Respondent. |
| Court | Utah Supreme Court |
Robert B. Hansen, Atty. Gen., Salt Lake City, for plaintiff and appellant.
Gary L. Gale, Ogden, for defendant and respondent.
Plaintiff appeals from a judgment denying an award of alimony and support alleged to have accrued under a foreign (California) decree of divorce.
The record supports the following abstract of facts: The parties were divorced in 1949 and the decree awarded custody of the minor children to plaintiff and required defendant to pay $75 per month as alimony and $25 per month as support for each of the children. In 1959, the Superior Court of San Joaquin County, California, declared plaintiff incompetent. She was subsequently institutionalized and she remains so at the present time, hence the necessity for her appearance herein by her Guardian Ad Litem, Robert B. Hansen, who is also her brother and is an attorney licensed in California and Utah. The children were residing with their maternal grandmother, Katherine Hansen, in 1962 when defendant took their "custody." No formal modification of the decree was sought, but the change of "custody" was with the express (written) consent of Robert B. Hansen "as brother and attorney" for plaintiff, and with the apparent consent of the remainder of plaintiff's family. The children resided with, and were supported by, defendant for some two years thereafter until the said Katherine Hansen again took the children to reside with her. They remained with her until all reached majority, except one of them resided with, and was supported by, defendant for some three years of that time. The State of California has supported plaintiff all during the time of her institutionalization, and during that same period of time plaintiff has contributed nothing toward the monetary support of the children. Defendant purchased and paid the premiums on a $50,000 policy of insurance on his life, naming Katherine Hansen and Robert B. Hansen as three-tenths and one-tenth beneficiaries, respectively, which he contends was in settlement of all claims, past, present, and future, for alimony and support. Plaintiff's contention to the contrary is that the policy was only a means of insuring reimbursement to Katherine Hansen of her expenditures for the support of the children and in lieu of court action to enforce the terms of the decree. Plaintiff's complaint and supplemental complaint contains no demand for attorney fees. That issue was not presented to the trial court, and is raised for the first time on this appeal.
The trial court determined: (1) that plaintiff was not entitled to any award for child support or alimony; (2) that defendant should establish and pay into a special trust account the sum of $75 per month, retroactive to June, 1973, said account to be paid over only to the State of California should it lay claim for reimbursement of its expenses in maintaining plaintiff, and if not, and upon plaintiff's death, then to be disbursed to defendant; (3) that the parties had agreed that the $50,000 life insurance policy was in lieu of support and alimony due plaintiff or Katherine Hansen, and that such is a bar to further proceedings; furthermore, that plaintiff and her guardian ad litem are not entitled to any support or alimony whatsoever, and that defendant is required to maintain said insurance policy for the rest of his life, Katherine Hansen's and Robert B. Hansen's present interest therein as beneficiaries to remain vested; and (4) that no attorney fees be awarded.
Plaintiff's appeal is based principally upon insufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment and defendant's cross-appeal challenges the authority of the trial court to establish a trust account in favor of the State of California, it not being a party to the action.
The facts of this case present a loose family arrangement devised to meet the support needs of children of divorce compounded by the illness of their mother. Although the plan has now gone awry, the basic needs of the children were met and all of them have now reached majority.
Plaintiff, by her incompetency, was precluded from personally contributing to the support of the children, and although Robert B. Hansen purported to represent her interests both as brother and attorney, no general guardian was ever appointed to stand in her place and stead. Therefore, defendant took the children to reside with him, and thereafter, enlisted the aid and assistance of his mother-in-law, Katherine Hansen, in the support of the children and made some nebulous insurance arrangement to in some way compensate her for her efforts and expenditures directed to said support of the children.
In the meantime, the State of California has apparently shouldered the total burden of the...
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Blackhurst v. Transamerica Ins. Co.
...general guardians can compromise the claims of an incompetent person. We acknowledge this to be the general rule. See Hansen v. Gossett, Utah, 590 P.2d 1258, 1260 (1979). However, the rule requiring guardians for incompetent persons is for their protection. Morris v. Russell, 120 Utah 545, ......
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...the child, and cannot be bartered away by the child's parent or parents. Hills v. Hills, 638 P.2d 516, 517 (Utah 1981); Hansen v. Gossett, 590 P.2d 1258, 1260 (Utah 1979) (right to support belongs to the child); State Division of Family Services v. Clark, 554 P.2d 1310, 1311-12 (Utah 1976) ......
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State By and Through Utah State Dept. of Social Services v. Sucec, s. 950205
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