35 Conn. 82 | Conn. | 1868
This is a motion in error from the judgment and decree of the Superior Court, affirming the decree of the court of probate appointing a conservator over the appellant, Sampson Dunn.
The first assignment of error is, that the service of the application to the court of probate and of the citation annexed to it, was insufficient and defective. The statute requires the summons accompanying an application for the appointment of a conservator to be served by copy left at the usual place of abode of the respondent. Gen. Statutes, page 514, sec. 2. The respondent in this case was at the time confined in the Hartford county jail, though he belonged in East Windsor. He had made an assignment of his property under the insolvent law, and the trustee in insolvency had sold his former residence in East Windsor, and the purchaser had taken possession of it, so that he had, at the time service was made, no other place of residence than the place where he was confined at the time. We think, therefore, that the ser
Another assignment of error is, that the court of probate erred in that it appointed the conservator without making any due enquiry, and without giving the appellant any opportunity to be heard; and of course that the Superior Court erred in sanctioning the. decree of probate so made. We think the facts found by the Superior Court show that that part of this assignment of error which states that the appointment was made by the court of probate without giving the appellant a fair opportunity to be heard, is well founded, and consequently that the Superior Court ought to have disaffirmed the decree of probate on this ground. The summons was returnable the 11th day of March, 1867 ; but the trial appears to have been postponed or adjourned to the 11th day of May, 1867. At this time the respondent in the application appeared before the court of probate, with his counsel and witnesses, and requested to be heard in opposition to the appointment of a conservator over him, but the court of probate refused to hear him. If there was nothing else in the case it would, of course, be unnecessary to say that this would be very irregular and erroneous. But it appears that the judge of probate had for many years been acquainted with the respondent, and that on the 4th of May previous to the time of
We are of opinion that there is manifest error in the judgment of the Superior Court and in the decree of the probate court, and that both should be reversed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.