261 Pa. 574 | Pa. | 1918
Opinion by
The case was heard on petition and answer; the facts are therefore not in dispute, and are thus set out in the petition. One Harry A. Kern,-a resident of New Jersey owning property in that state, was by due process of law adjudged in the courts of that state a lunatic, and is now confined in the hospital for the insane at Trenton. The petitioner, a citizen of Moorestown in said state, has been duly appointed resident guardian of the person and estate of the said .lunatic, in attestation and confirmation of which he submits certificates, agreeably to the acts of congress in such case provided, of such appointment, and that he has given bond for the faithful performance of such trust, approved by the court. The petition further avers that the ward is entitled to certain property in this State at present committed to the care and custody of the Commonwealth Title Insurance and Trust Company, which company was on the 10th of July, 1915, by the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia, appointed committee of the estate of the said lunatic lying-find being situate in the State of Pennsylvania; that a removal, of this property into the hands of the resident guardian will not conflict with the terms and limitations attefiding the right by which the lunatic owns the same, and that petitioner has made demand upon the Commonwealth Title Insurance and Trust Company, the committee aforesaid, for a transfer to him of such property in order that he may remove it to the place of residence
Dismissing from consideration the extraneous grounds upon which alone the court below rests its adjudication in the opinion filed, namely, thát the estate in New Jersey had not been wisely or prudently managed, and that a former guardian in that state, now dead, had not settled his account, — matters not only not appearing in the record but wholly irrelevant and over which the courts of this State have no jurisdiction:, what is there in the act to suggest that in the disposition of such cases anything is left to the discretion of the court, when the^petitioner has complied with every requirement of the act?
We simply remark, tvithout further comment, that the learned court was here under misapprehension as to its proper functions in this particular case; the lunatic here was not its ward; it had not adjudged him a lunatic and could not have done so had it attempted it inasmuch as it had no jurisdiction over him, he being resident of another state. He was the ward of a court in another state and that court alone had jurisdiction over his person. It was by virtue of the adjudication of that court that he was legally adjudged a lunatic, and it was upon the certification of that court to the courts of this State that the latter acquired custody and control of the lunatic’s property lying within this State. So it is clear that the, power of the courts in Pennsylvania went no further than the conservation of such property of the lunatic as Avas in Pennsylvania. With what ■ was the lunatic’s property outside Pennsylvania the courts here Avere absolutely without jurisdiction; and this must be equally true with respect to the person of the lunatic. Were we to admit the very question in dispute — the discretionary power of the court — that discretion must be confined to a consideration of.those'facts and circumstances which appertain, and belong to .the subject over which the court has jurisdiction, and not be allowed to. extend to those
The case calls for no further discussion or remark. It is quite clear that it is not one calling for the exercise of judicial discretion, but of positive and absolute duty. The decree of the court below is reversed, the petition is reinstated and procedendo awarded.