Watson v. Warnock

• Decision Date: 31 January 1861
• Citation: 31 Ga. 716
• Parties: WATSON. vs. WARNOCK.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

31 Ga. 716

WATSON. vs. WARNOCK.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

JANUARY TERM, 1861.

Application for Letters of Guardianship, in Burke Superior Court. Tried before Judge HoLT, at the May Term, 1860.

Simeon Warnock made application to the Court of Ordinary of Burke county, for letters of guardianship of the person and property of Martha Lurania Tindall, a minor child of Everett Tindall, deceased.

To this application, Green G. Watson entered a caveat, on the following grounds:

1st. That the caveator is the nearest of kin to the said minor child, said minor being the only child of the only sister of the caveator, and that caveator is by blood the maternal uncle of said minor.

2d. That if the applicant is of any kin to the deceased, Everett Tindall, deceased, it is too remote to give him any interest in the estate of deceased, or in the estate of the said minor.

The trial of the issue made by the application and caveat, was regularly postponed until the October Term, 1858, when the same was tried, in the Court of Ordinary, and said Court rendered the following judgment, to wit:

"It is ordered by the Court, that Green G. Watson being the maternal uncle, and next of kin of the minor, that the caveat be sustained, and that the said Green G. Watson be, and he is hereby, appointed guardian of said minor, on hisgiving bond, with Simeon Wallace and Adam Belcher as his securities, in the sum of $25,000, and that letters of guardianship do issue in terms of the law."

From this judgment Simeon Warnock entered an appeal to the Superior Court of Burke county, and on the trial of the case on the appeal at the May Term, 1859, the testimony disclosed the following state of facts:

Everett Tindall, deceased, and Simeon Warnock, the applicant, were cousins, and the caveator and Tindall's wife were brother and sister. Mrs. Tindall died before her husband, and all the property of which Tindall died seized, and which now goes to the minor, Martha Lurania Tindall, came through Tindall's family, and that no part of it came through Tindall's wife. Simeon Warnock, the applicant, is a prudent and judicious manager of money and property; a kind and humane man, and a suitable and proper person to take the charge and management of the person and property of the minor. During his last sickness, and whilst under the apprehension of death, but of sound and disposing mind and memory, Everett Tindall called several persons around his bedside, and called upon them to bear witness, that it was his will and wish, if he died, that his cousin Simeon Warnock should take charge of his property, pay his debts, and save all he could for his child. Pointing to the child on the bed beside him, and said that the child was all he cared for, and that he wanted Warnock to take the child home with him, and take care of it, and raise it, and take charge of his property, and manage it for his child.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Simeon Warnock, the applicant.

Counsel for the caveator then made a motion for a new trial on the following grounds:

1st. Because the verdict is contrary to law.

2d. Because the verdict is contrary to evidence.

3d. Because the verdict is contrary to law and evidence, and the charge of •the Court.

At the November Term, 1860, the presiding Judge pronounced his decision, overruling the motion, and refusing the new trial, and this decision is the error complained of in this case.

John K. Jackson, for plaintiff in error.

Jones & Sturgis; Shewmake, for defendant in error.

By the Court. —Lyon, J., delivering the opinion.

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