In re Strozyk's Guardianship

• Decision Date: 07 April 1930
• Docket Number: 22173.
• Citation: 286 P. 646,156 Wash. 233
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: In re STROZYK'S GUARDIANSHIP.

286 P. 646

156 Wash. 233

In re STROZYK'S GUARDIANSHIP.

No. 22173.

Supreme Court of Washington

April 7, 1930

Department 1.

Appeal from Superior Court, Pacific County; H. W. B. Hewen, Judge.

In the matter of the guardianship of Theophil Leo Strozyk incompetent. From an order entered upon a hearing on the guardian's report, Frank T. Hines, Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau, appeals.

Affirmed in part.

Lester E. Pope, of Seattle, for appellant.

John I O'Phelan, of Raymond, for respondent.

BEALS J.

Theophil Leo Strozyk is a disabled veteran of the American Army suffering under some mental disability due to his military service, who is now and for several years has been hospitalized at the United States Veterans' Hospital located at American Lake, Wash. The veteran is receiving from the United States, through the United States Veterans' Bureau, the sum of $57.50 per month, and his father, Peter Strozyk, was, in June, 1920, by the superior court for Pacific county, appointed guardian of the person and estate of his son to receive the compensation above referred to and other sums paid by the government to the soldier, and function generally as such guardian.

During the month of November, 1926, Lester E. Pope, the regional guardianship officer of the United States Veterans' Bureau, stationed at Seattle, Wash., served upon the guardian and filed, pursuant to chapter 104, Session Laws of 1925 Extraordinary Session (Rem. Comp. Stat. 1927 Supplement, § 1586-1), a request for a 'special written notice of proceedings,' pursuant to which a copy of the guardian's report filed October 2, 1928, was served upon Mr. Pope, to which he filed objections on behalf of the United States.

Upon a hearing upon this report, the court entered an order reciting that the guardian had on hand in cash belonging to his ward the sum of $13,820.82; that the guardian had made certain expenditures, which were allowed; that the guardian was entitled to the sum of $240 as compensation for his service as guardian, and to the further sum of $50 as compensation to his attorney. To this order, Frank T. Hines, as Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau, appearing by the local representative of the Bureau, took certain exceptions, and, from the order, in so far as the same approved the guardian's account and allowed the guardian compensation, the Director of the Veterans' Bureau prosecutes this appeal.

It appears from the statement of facts that, since the approval of an account filed by the guardian for the period ending September 23, 1926, the guardian performed practically no services other than the receipt of the monthly payments of $57.50, as made by the Veterans' Bureau, and the deposit of the same in a savings bank, as the guardian had been directed to do by the court.

During all the period covered by the report with which we are now concerned, the incompetent has been continuously hospitalized in the institution maintained by the government at American Lake, and all, or practically all, of the property belonging to the incompetent, which has come into the possession of his guardian, consists of money paid by the United States government as compensation due or payable to the soldier because of his military service or on account of disability suffered by him in the line of duty.

Frank T. Hines, Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau, appellant herein, appeared in the guardianship proceeding pursuant to section 1586-1, Rem. Comp. Stat. 1927 Supplement, under authority of sections 5 and 21 of the Word War Veterans' Act, passed by Congress in 1924, and amendments thereto (USCA tit. 38, § 426, and title 38, § 450, as shown in the 1929 Supplement).

In the report filed by the guardian October 2, 1928, the guardian charged against his ward's estate certain items as expenses incurred by him on trips to South Bend, an item of expense incurred on a trip to Seattle to cash a United States Treasury certificate, and other sums constituting the expenses of himself and wife on visits to the hospital to see their son. In addition to approving the guardian's disbursements, as set forth in his account, the court allowed the guardian $240 as compensation for his services, evidently, as claimed by the guardian, on a basis of $10 per month for the twenty-four months which had elapsed since the filing of the 1926 report.

Appellant argues that the items allowed the guardian for the expenses of himself and wife on their visits to their son in the hospital and the items making up the guardian's expenses on trips to South Bend to have interest entered in a savings bank account book and to Seattle to cash a United States Treasury certificate belonging to his ward should not have been allowed. It would seem that, in so far as the presentation of the guardian's savings account book at the bank is South Bend was required in order that accrued interest might be entered thereon, the matter could have been attended to with safety and expedition through the United States mails, and it is difficult...