Willet v. Warren

Citations

• 34 Wash. 647
• 76 P. 273
• 1904 Wash. LEXIS 397

Syllabus

<p>Guardian and Ward — Appointment of Guardian for Orphan • — Evidence —- Sufficiency — Claim of Relatives — Interests of Ward Controlling- — Decision of Lower Court — Reversal Where Testimony Is Uncontradicted. Where, for three years before her death, a widow had left her infant child in the care of W and his wife, who were living in good circumstances in a city with good school, church, and social advantages, and who had shown themselves, peculiarly adapted to the care and custody of the child, to whom they had become greatly attached, and the child, although of non-consenting age, desired to remain with them, it is error, on the death of the mother, to refuse to appoint W guardian of the infant, and to appoint as guardian an aunt living in the mountains in Idaho, who had never before shown any interest in the child, although a prosperous person of good character, consanguinity alone appearing to he the only reason entitling her to the preference; and the evidence being brief and practically uncontradicted, tbe supreme court will not hesitate to reverse tbe lower court, since tbe interests of tbe ward are controlling, and relatives have no legal right, to tbe appointment.</p>