167 A. 502 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1933
Argued April 25, 1933.
We think the order of the court below should be reversed and the case sent back for a hearing on the vital point at issue, viz., whether Grant Edmundson, at the time the proceedings under the Act of May 28, 1907, P.L. 292, as amended by the Act of April 1, 1925, P.L. 101, were instituted, was a resident of Allegheny County or of Westmoreland County; and that niceties of pleading should not govern in passing on such a jurisdictional requirement. The Act of 1907 which provides for the appointment of guardians for the protection of "insane persons, feeble-minded persons and epileptics, unable to take care of their property," makes it a jurisdictional requirement that the petition for such appointment be presented "to the court of common pleas of the county in which said person to be cared for resides." By this is not meant the place where he may be sojourning at the time the petition is presented, but his established place of abode, his permanent dwelling place, and is practically synonymous with "domicile": In re appointment of Guardian for Belle Nichols,
If, as was alleged in the petition to vacate the appointment of guardian, Grant Edmundson had resided for many years prior to and continuously up until September 12, 1931 in Rillton, North Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County, then he was a resident of Westmoreland County and not of Allegheny County; and a temporary visit to a resident of Allegheny County, shortly before the proceedings were instituted would not change his "residence." If one is insane or so feeble-minded as to be unable to take care of his property and to require the protection of a guardian to do so, he is also incapable of changing his settlement or residence within the contemplation of the Act of 1907, (19 C.J. 417, 418), by a transient or temporary visit elsewhere. We are not concerned with where he may have lived since the guardian was appointed. The jurisdiction of the lower court depended on where he "resided" at the time the petition was presented and the proceedings were begun. If this was Rillton, Westmoreland County, then the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County had no jurisdiction and should revoke the appointment: Simpson's Est.,
The petitioner appellant is a debtor of Grant Edmundson and interested in his estate, (Com. ex rel. v. Pitcairn,
The second assignment of error is sustained, the order is reversed, and the record remitted to the court below with directions to hear witnesses, and decide from the evidence the "residence" of Grant Edmundson at the time the original proceedings in this case were instituted; and if found to be in Westmoreland County, to revoke the appointment of guardian. Costs on this appeal to be paid out of the estate.