Knight v. Radomski

• Decision Date: 30 May 1980
• Citation: 414 A.2d 1211
• Parties: William B. KNIGHT, as Special Guardian of William Austin Knight, and William Austin Knight, his ward v. Jean T. RADOMSKI, also known as Jean T. Knight.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 1211

414 A.2d 1211

William B. KNIGHT, as Special Guardian of William Austin

Knight, and William Austin Knight, his ward v. Jean T. RADOMSKI, also known as Jean T. Knight.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

May 30, 1980.

Gross, Minsky, Mogul & Singal, P.A., George Z. Singal (orally), Elizabeth A Ebitz, Bangor, Fenton, Griffin, Chapman, Smith & Fenton, Douglas B. Chapman, Bar Harbor, for plaintiff.

Berman, Berman & Simmons, P.A., William Robitzek (orally), Jack H. Simmons, Lewiston, for defendant.

Before McKUSICK, C. J., and WERNICK, GODFREY and GLASSMAN, JJ.

GODFREY, Justice.

William B. Knight, father and guardian of William Austin Knight (known as "Buzz"), brought this action, as special guardian, to annul the marriage of Buzz to defendant Jean T. Radomski. The action was brought in Superior Court on behalf of Buzz pursuant to 19 M.R.S.A. § 632 (Supp. 1979-80) ¹ on essentially three grounds: first, that Buzz Knight had been declared mentally incompetent before the marriage and his duly appointed guardian had had no notice of the marriage and had not consented to it; second, the marriage license had been procured by fraudulent or improper procedure; and third, on the date of the marriage, defendant had not completed a valid divorce from her previous husband. ² After a trial without jury, the Superior Court denied the requested annulment and dismissed the complaint. Knight, Sr. filed this timely appeal. Radomski filed a cross-appeal, which has since been abandoned. We sustain the plaintiff's appeal and reverse the judgment of the Superior Court.

From the voluminous record on appeal, we conclude that the following facts are undisputed: On October, 1972, Buzz Knight was struck by an automobile while jogging and suffered severe brain damage with paralysis and change of personality. He was eventually sent to the Veterans Administration Hospital at Togus for treatment. In March, 1973, William B. Knight was appointed conservator of his son's estate pursuant to 18 M.R.S.A. § 3701 (1964). ³ In October, 1973, Buzz was divorced from the woman to whom he had been married before the accident.

Early in 1977 the defendant, Dr. Jean Radomski, a psychologist at Togus, began working with Buzz Knight as a patient. Dr. Radomski, who was married at the time, became romantically attracted to Buzz and in March, 1977, asked his parents if they would object to her marrying him. After the senior Knight stated his reservations about her proposal, she still continued to work with Buzz as a patient.

On September 12, 1977, William B. Knight filed a petition for guardianship of Buzz. On the basis of considerable medical testimony, the probate judge of Hancock County, acting pursuant to 18 M.R.S.A. ch. 501, subch. III (1964 and Supp. 1979-80), issued a decree on January 17, 1978, imposing a guardianship on Buzz Knight and appointing William B. Knight guardian of his estate and temporary guardian of his person for a period of sixty days. Jean Radomski appeared at the probate court hearing in opposition to the appointment of Knight, Sr., as guardian. On March 21, 1978, the probate court issued an order appointing William B. Knight permanent guardian of the person of Buzz Knight, conditioned on the filing of a bond.

Defendant stopped treating Buzz as a patient on September 12, 1977, the same day that Mr. Knight filed the petition for guardianship. She had been served on September 2, 1977, with a complaint by her husband, Theodore Radomski, for a Maine divorce. Her husband left Maine in the same month and became a resident of Arizona, where he again filed for divorce. In October, defendant left Maine and became a resident of Colorado.

Sometime in March, 1978, Theodore Radomski went to the Dominican Republic to obtain a quick divorce. Defendant had signed a power of attorney allowing her husband's Dominican attorney to appear for her in her absence. On March 28, the day after he obtained the Dominican divorce, Theodore Radomski delivered the decree to defendant in Boston.

On the same day, March 28, 1978, the probate judge approved the bond filed by William B. Knight pursuant to the guardianship order of March 21. The judge issued a formal letter of appointment of Knight as permanent guardian, and his order was docketed before noon on March 28.

At 1:30 p. m. on the same day, a marriage ceremony took place between Buzz Knight and defendant Radomski at the Togus Hospital. The ceremony was witnessed by two of defendant's expatients. Also dated March 28, 1978, is an order of the probate judge of Kennebec County granting a waiver of the five-day waiting period on the ground that Jean Radomski had patients waiting in Colorado. The couple immediately left the hospital and went to Connecticut and then to Colorado the next day. Buzz Knight was later returned to Togus Hospital, where he remains pending the outcome of this litigation.

At trial, the presiding justice listened to much testimony from witnesses on both sides concerning Buzz Knight's competence, mental and emotional condition, comprehension of the marital relationship, and tractability. Buzz himself did not testify. The justice began the opinion accompanying his order by stating that he drew no inference from the failure of Buzz to testify and that he found the evidence conflicting as to whether Buzz himself desired an annulment. He stated, also, that the expert witnesses were in disagreement about whether Buzz suffered from psychosis. He concluded that the plaintiff guardian, William B. Knight, had failed to meet his burden of showing that Buzz "lacked sufficient mental capacity at the time of the marriage." He found that it was "more probable than not that on March 28, 1978, William Austin Knight had sufficient mental capacity to understand the nature of the marriage contract and the duties and responsibilities thereby created."

The case presents a threshold issue because of the provision of 19 M.R.S.A. § 632 (Supp. 1979-80) that "either party" to a marriage may file a complaint for annulment when the validity of a marriage is doubted. In Inhabitants of Winslow v. Inhabitants of Troy, 97 Me. 130, 132, 53 A. 1008, 1009 (1902), this Court stated that a guardian "only" could not bring an annulment action, but the Court declined to say whether a guardian could bring such an action on behalf of his incompetent ward. ⁴ We hold now that a guardian of an incompetent has standing to bring an annulment action under section 632 on behalf of the ward. Such standing is inherent in the guardian's responsibility for protecting the rights of the ward under 18 M.R.S.A. ch. 501, subch. III (1964 & Supp. 1979-80). ⁵

With respect to the merits, Knight, Sr., relies on several provisions of 18 M.R.S.A. ch. 501, subch. III. Section 3601(1) (1964 & Supp. 1979-80) provides that guardians may be appointed for

all persons, including those mentally ill or of unsound mind . . . who, by reason of infirmity or mental incapacity, are incompetent to manage their own estates or to protect their rights.

Section 3603 provides:

When such application (for appointment of a guardian) is made and notice issued thereon by the judge, the applicants may cause a copy of their application and the order of the court thereon to be filed in the registry of deeds for the county. If a guardian is appointed thereupon, all contracts, except for necessaries, and all gifts, sales or transfers of real or personal estate made by such person after said filing and before the termination of the guardianship are void. This section does not add anything to the validity of any such act previous to said filing.

Section 3605 provides, in part:

Such guardians shall have the custody of the persons of their wards, if resident in the State, except so far as the court or probate may from time to time otherwise order. . . .

Section 3607 provides:

When a person over 18 years of age is under guardianship, he is incapable of disposing of his property otherwise than by his last will or of making any contract, notwithstanding the death, resignation or removal of the guardian. When, on application of any such person or otherwise, the judge finds that a guardian is no longer necessary, he shall order the remaining property of the ward to be restored to him, except a legal compensation to the guardian for his services.

In addition to the quoted provisions from title 18, Knight, Sr., relies on 19 M.R.S.A. § 32 (1964), which provides: "No mentally ill or feeble-minded person or idiot is capable of contracting marriage." Marriages prohibited by section 32, if solemnized in Maine, are declared "absolutely void" by 19 M.R.S.A. § 631 (Supp. 1979-80).

The Superior Court rejected Knight's arguments. It held that marriage is not a contract of the sort prohibited by the quoted provisions of title 18. In so ruling, the court relied on Roether v. Roether, 180 Wis. 24, 191 N.W. 576, 28 A.L.R. 631 (1923), in which the Wisconsin court held, in an action by a wife to affirm her marriage to an alleged incompetent, that marriage is not a "contract" within the meaning of a statute resembling 18 M.R.S.A. § 3603. The Superior Court conducted its own inquiry into Buzz Knight's competence to marry at the time of the marriage, holding that the probate court's prior appointment of a permanent guardian of his person, finalized on the day of the marriage, was not controlling because the competence requisite for marriage is different from that required for other matters.

The Superior Court relied on Inhabitants of St. George v. City of Biddeford, 76 Me. 593 (1885), which involved a collateral attack on the validity of a marriage of an allegedly insane person. However, St. George was not a case where another court had already made an adjudication of incompetence and appointed a guardian of the person of the adjudicated incompetent. In St. George, the judge submitted to a jury the question of the man's competence to marry, instructing the jury that the man need not...