In re Bassett

• Decision Date: 26 January 1888
• Citation: 36 N.W. 97,68 Mich. 348
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: IN RE BASSETT.

36 N.W. 97

68 Mich. 348

IN RE BASSETT.

Supreme Court of Michigan

January 26, 1888

Certiorari to probate court, Kalamazoo county.

Louisa S. Bassett made application to the probate court, and had a guardian appointed over George R. Bassett. Pending the determination of the matter on appeal in the circuit court, a special guardian was appointed on her application, and this writ obtained by the ward.

PER CURIAM.

We granted a writ of certiorari to bring up the record in the probate court for the county of Kalamazoo, in the matter of the proceedings of the judge of probate of that county in appointing a special guardian of George R. Bassett an alleged incompetent person. The probate judge has made return to the writ, from which it appears that on the ninth day of February, A. D. 1887, one Louisa S. Bassett applied by petition to said judge, asking that a general guardian be appointed of the person and estate of George R. Bassett. She represented that she is an aunt of said George R. Bassett that he is of the age of 21 years of thereabouts, and is an inhabitant or resident in the county of Kalamazoo, and is possessed of real estate situate in said county and elsewhere of the estimated value of $50,000 or thereabouts, as petitioner is informed and verily believes. She further, in her petition, represented that it is necessary that a guardian of the person and estate of the said George R Bassett be appointed, for the following reason, viz.: That said George R. Bassett is mentally incompetent to have the care and management of his said property; that he has been, from boyhood up, of feeble health, and that his mental condition has never been normal that he came of age on the thirteenth day of October last, and that since said time he has steadily squandered his property and wasted his estate, and that he is continually wasting the same, and is a person of feeble mind at the present time. The petition does not state the names of the nearest of kin, or other persons interested in said estate, who would be heirs in the case of the intestacy of said George R. Bassett. The judge of probate, acting upon this petition, appointed a time of hearing, and ordered notice to be served upon Bassett, the alleged incompetent. Bassett filed an answer, asserting that the court had not acquired jurisdiction by the filing of the petition, denied the allegations of the petition, denied the right or power of the probate court to appoint any guardian over his person or property. A hearing was had, and proofs taken, and the probate judge thereupon made an order as follows: "It is ordered and decreed that James B. Cobb be, and is hereby, appointed guardian of said George R. Bassett; and it is further ordered that said James B. Cobb file a bond in the penal sum of five thousand dollars, with sufficient surety to be approved by said court, before entering upon the discharge of his duties as such guardian, and that upon filing and approval of such bond letters of administration issue to him in the usual form." An appeal was taken by Bassett from this order to the circuit court. Thereupon Louisa S. Bassett presented a petition to the probate judge for the appointment of a special guardian pending the appeal. In this petition she set out that she is a sister of the deceased father of said George R. Bassett, and that he has no father, mother, brother, sister, child, nor children. She also set out the appointment of the general guardian, and the appeal taken from the order to the circuit court of the county of Kalamazoo, and the reasons why a special guardian should be appointed pending the appeal. This application was met with a motion to dismiss the petition, and all proceedings under it, for 15 reasons, of which a few only will be noticed here. The first is based upon the insufficiency of the petition for the appointment of a guardian to confer jurisdiction, and for not complying with the provisions of the statute in regard to the appointment of special guardians; second, that the petition does not show that Louisa S. Bassett is such a relative as is contemplated by the statute who is authorized to make such application, or that she is such a person as would inherit any of the property of George R. Bassett if he should die intestate; fourth, because the petition does not show, by facts and circumstances, that George R. Bassett is a mentally incompetent person, nor set forth the causes of the alleged incompetency; fifteenth, that the original petition for the appointment of a general guardian is void, and confers no jurisdiction on the court to appoint a general guardian, and that the alleged appointment of a general guardian is void.

Section 6314, How. St., provides: "When the relations or friends of any insane person,...