Beezley v. Phillips

Citations

• 117 F. 105
• 54 C.C.A. 491
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4411

Syllabus

<p>1. Guardian’s Sale—Jurisdiction to Issue License.</p> <p>A guardian’s sale of real estate is void in a case In which the court which issued the license to the guardian to sell the property had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter.</p> <p>2. Same—Petition for Sale to Pay Debts Insufficient to Give Jurisdic-</p> <p>tion to Sell fob Maintenance or Investment.</p> <p>The statutes of Nebraska provide two different modes 'of procedure for the sale of the real estate of a ward by a guardian,—one to authorize its sale to pay debts, and the other to authorize its sale to support the ward, or to invest the proceeds in personal property. Upon a petition sufficient to warrant a guardian’s sale to pay debts, a sale was made pursuant to the course of procedure prescribed for that purpose, which was conceded to be invalid because the court failed to cause the issue and service of the statutory notice of the hearing upon the petition which was requisite to give it jurisdiction. In the procedure to sell for maintenance and investment no notice to the ward was essential, and an attempt was made to sustain the guardian’s sale on the ground that it was made for the maintenance of the ward and the investment of the proceeds. Held-, (a) A petition which contains only the essential allegations to warrant a guardian’s sale to pay the debts of the ward does not give the district court jurisdiction, under the statutes of Nebraska, to order a sale for the maintenance of the ward or for the investment of the proceeds of the sale, (b) The petition did not contain the requisite allegations to invoke the jurisdiction of the court to license a sale for maintenance or investment; the court did not attempt to license such a sale, did nbt follow the course of procedure prescribed by the statute to authorize such a sale; and the guardian’s sale in question was void, because the license to the guardian was not issued by a district court of competent jurisdiction, within the meaning of section 64, c