88 So. 401 | Miss. | 1921
delivered the opinion of the court.
On the 13th day of November, 1918, Mrs. M. O. Saia filed a petition in the chancery court for letters of administration upon the estate of J. C. Saia, alleging that he died intestate on the loth day of October, 1918, and that petition
It is further alleged that the contract of the rental is' void because Mrs. Saia, the administratrix, was at the time a minor and had no right or authority to make this or any contract, that she was approximately seventeen years of age at the time, and prayed for an order authorizing the petitioner to file any suit or take any further step necessary for canceling said lease, and praying for general relief.
The court first entered a decree granting the prayer of this petition without having made Giglio a party. This decree was entered on the 17th day of May, 1920. Thereafter, on the 22d day of June, an order was entered directing the cause to be continued and service to be had upon Giglio to appear on the 29th of June, 1920, to show cause why the order should not be made final, and why his contractual right should not be set aside and canceled. Giglio appeared and moved to strike the order of May 17th from the files because the court was without power or authority- to make and enter said order; second, that the order authorizing the lease made January 12, 1919, was a final order.
There was also a petition filed setting forth the order of May 17th and denying the allegations of the petition upon which said order was made and setting forth that the said lease contract was approved by the chancery court, and that the price paid therefor was the best that could be obtained at that time, that the said contract with Mrs. Saia was made in good faith and was a fair and reasonable price at the time, and prayed for the cancellation of the order of May 17th and asking for the reinstatement of the original order approving the contract..
The petition last named was supported by affidavits of a number of people stating that the price paid for the rental of the property was a fair price at the time the contract was made.
The cause was taken under advisement, and on the 27th day of September, 1920, a decree was rendered granting
“That the said lease contract now held by the said C. Giglio be, and the same is hereby, canceled and for naught held, said contract having been heretofore entered into by M. C. Saia, who was at the time a minor, pursuant to a decree of the chancery court aforesaid entered January 12, 1919, and a part of this record, which decree of this court is declared to be void and of no effect, no person of legal age having been before the court at or about the time of the entering of the said decree, arid all of the heirs of the deceased J. O. Saia being not of legal age and being not represented before the court either in person or by guardian or next friend.”
The proof taken on the behalf of Woollard, the administrator, shows merely that the property was worth more than thirty-five dollars per month rent at the time it was made, and that it would then (at the hearing) bring from sixty dollars to seventy dollars per month. The entire petition for the sale of the goods and the lease of the store is not attacked, and no effort is made to disturb the sale of goods, and no effort is made to show that there was any fraud in the proceeding nor was there any proof that J. C. Saia left any heirs other than his wife, who administered on said estate. Qn the hearing it appeared that Mrs. Saia was only eighteen years of age, and that her father applied to be made a party to the petition, which was allowed by the chancellor, though Ms name was not inserted as a party in the petition. It appears that the contract was made in good faith by Giglio, and that he gave up a position as railroad employee at Viclcsburgh to move to Shaw, Miss., and take charge of said stock of goods and storehouse, and he had been in possession of and conducting the business for more than twelve months carrying out said contract.
The decree will be reversed, and the petition dismissed.
Beversed and petition dismissed.