Macgill v. McEvoy

Citations

• 85 Md. 286
• 37 A. 218
• 1897 Md. LEXIS 69

Syllabus

<p>Appeal— Guardian and Ward — Orphans’ Court — Appeal Lies from an Order Refusing to Remove a Guardian — A Guardian’s Management of the Estate Held not to be Such as to Justify his Removal.</p> <p>An appeal lies from an order of the Orphans’ Court refusing to remove a guardian, and dismissing a petition asking for his removal filed under Code, Art. 93, sec. 232.</p> <p>The Orphans’ Court has discretionary power under Code, Art. 93, sec. 232, to remove a guardian for improper conduct or incapacity to fulfill the duties of the office, but this power cannot be exercised arbitrarily. To justify a removal some cause must exist, and if the assigned cause be inadequate, or, being adequate is not sustained by the evidence, the guardian cannot be lawfully removed.</p> <p>A petition for the removal of the guardian of the estate of a ward alleged that the income of the estate had largely decreased owing to the guardian’s wasteful extravagance; that he had neglected the duties of the office on account of illness and absence; that he had allowed the taxes to accumulate, &c. Held,</p> <p>ist. That although the income of the estate had been reduced and some part of the corpus had been expended by the guardian, yet, since the evidence showed that the diminution of income was owing to causes for which the guardian was not responsible, and the expenditure of the corpus was rendered necessary by the nature of the property in which a part of the estate was invested, and was made under orders of the Orphans’ Court, this did not constitute ground for his removal.</p> <p>2nd. That the mistakes made in the statement of some of the guardian’s accounts did not arise from incompetence or dishonesty and were corrected in subsequent accounts, and were not a ground for removal.</p> <p>3rd. That under the circumstances of the case, the failure of the guardian to keep down the taxes on the estate ought not to be regarded as improper conduct on his part.</p> <p>4th. That the fact that the guardian