204 S.W.2d 594 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1947
Reversing.
H. Elliott Netherton was appointed committee for Oscar Brock, an inmate of the Central State Hospital for the Insane, at Lakeland, by the Oldham County Court in June, 1945. Before his commitment to Lakeland, Brock had been sentenced to the State Reformatory for life on a charge of murder. Under a $10,000 life insurance policy issued upon the life of his father, Adron Brock, a veteran of World War No. 1 who died in 1922, Brock was named beneficiary. The policy had lapsed prior to Adron Brock's death, but Oscar Brock's claim was finally approved, and in October, 1945, the sum of $13,315.20 was paid to Mr. Netherton as committee for Oscar Brock. Mr. Netherton invested $9000 of this sum in government bonds from which he received the sum of $130.94 as interest in June, 1946. In November, 1945, the Oldham County Court authorized a monthly allowance to Brock's dependent mother. In his annual report of June 22, 1946, Mr. Netherton allowed himself *428 the sum of five per cent on the total sum of $13,446.14, which represented the amount received from the Veterans' Administration and the income on the government bonds. This allowance was approved by the Oldham County Court, but upon an appeal to the Oldham Circuit Court by the Veterans' Administration the court sustained the exceptions filed by the Administration and allowed Mr. Netherton the sum of $27.80 as compensation.
Mr. Netherton is insisting that the judgment is erroneous in several respects, the principal one being that the only inconsistency between KRS
Under KRS
KRS
"Section 11. Compensation of guardian or committee.
"Compensation payable to guardian or committees shall not exceed five percent of the income of the ward during any year. In the event of extraordinary services rendered by any guardian or committee, the court may, upon petition and after notice to the Veterans Administration and hearing thereon, authorize reasonable additional compensation therefor payable from the estate of the ward. Notice of such petition and hearing shall be given to the proper office of the Veterans Administration in the manner provided in Section 9. No commission or compensation shall be allowed on the estate received from a preceding guardian."
Unquestionably, the 1942 Act was meant to be a general one relating to the class with which it dealt. Indeed, KRS
The record contains no evidence as to the duties performed by Mr. Netherton for his ward, but we gather from his briefs that he did some work in obtaining the insurance from the Veterans' Administration, in resisting a claim of the Welfare Department of the State for Brock's maintenance at Lakeland and in having Mrs. Brock declared a dependent. Mr. Netherton may or may not be able to show that he has performed any more than nominal services for his ward, but we believe that proof should be taken upon his claim in order that the court may arrive at a fair allowance for his services not to exceed five per cent of his ward's income for the year for which he made his report.
Therefore, we are reversing the judgment, with directions that it be set aside and that the case be remanded for the taking of proof on Mr. Netherton's claim.