McMullin v. Commonwealth Title Insurance & Trust Co.

Citations

• 261 Pa. 574
• 104 A. 760
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 792

Syllabus

<p>Lunatics — Nonresident lunatics — Property in this State — Transfer — Act of April IS, 1868, P. L. 9h — Statutes—Construction.</p> <p>1. Powers given to public functionaries or others for public purposes, or the public benefit, are always to be exercised when the occasion arises.</p> <p>2. Whenever a statute confers an authority to do a judicial act in a certain case, it is imperative on those so authorized when the case arises .and its exercise is duly applied for by a party interested and having the right to’make the application; the exercise depends not on the discretion of the court or judges, but upon proof of the particular case out of which the power arises.</p> <p>3. A nonresident lunatic does not become a ward in chancery in Pennsylvania because he has property here. The courts of Pennsylvania can not adjudge a nonresident to be a lunatic and the powers of the courts of Pennsylvania go no further than conserving the property of such lunatic as lies within the State.</p> <p>4. Where the guardian of a nonresident lunatic duly declared such by the courts of his state, makes application to the Court of Common Pleas under the Act of April 13, 1868, P. L. 94, for an order upon the committee in Pennsylvania in charge of such lunatic’s property to transfer the same to the guardian, the court has no discretion to refuse the application where the petitioner has complied with every requirement of the act. 5</p>