92 Ala. 564 | Ala. | 1890
In the view we take of this case, there Is but one question in it, namely, whether the Chancery Court acquired jurisdiction to appoint a trustee for the protection of the estate of William Thomas Williams, aii intemperate person, by a bill filed to that end under Chapter 5, sections 2502-2506 of the Code, by the father of the inebriate, which did not negative his having a brother or sister or other next of kin, or allege that the complainant was next of kin of said Williams. The statute provides: “When anj unmarried man, over twenty-one years of age, is, by reason of intemperance, unfit to manage his estate, or is wasting or squandering it, and thereby in danger of being reduced to poverty and want, his brothers or sisters, or next of kin, or any or either of them, may themselves, or by next friend, if minors or married women, file their bill in chancery to preserve the estate of such intemperate person from further waste, and for general relief.” Other provisions are for making the inebriate a party defendant, for the hearing, a decree thereon, if the averments are established by confession or admissions of the answer, or by proof, depriving him of' all control of the 'estate described, and appointing a trustee thereof, prescribing his duties, &c.; and for the restoration of the estate on petition and proof of reformation and fitness of the person whose estate has been committed to a trustee to have charge of the same. The manifest purpose of this legislation is the protection and pi’eservation of the inebriate’s estate for his support and maintenance, and to avert the danger of his being “reduced to poverty and want.” It not only does not involve, but negatives, the idea of conserving any interest his heirs expectant or distributees may be supposed to have in his estate. And this appears, not alone from the purposes which are expressed in the aGt, but also from the fact that the trustee to be appointed need not be the complainant in the bill, nor a brother or sister, or next of kin, of the intemperate person, but is to be selected by the Chancellor, whose discretion in that regard is in no degree controlled by considerations of relationship of the trustee to the inebriate or to the proceeding. Indeed it may well be
On the other hand, in wills “next of kin” are reckoned according to generations in blood without any reference to the statutes of descents and distribution obtaining in the particular jurisdiction, and include alike those of the same degree as well in the ascending as in the ’descending line, but does not embrace the husband or wife of the testator. — 2 Jarmon on Wills, pp. 108,109. It thus appears that the phrase has two distinct meanings, and the one or the other is to be applied in the particular instance accordingly as the question arises under the statute of distribution or some other statute affecting the rights or liabilities of distributees on the one hand, or without any reference to that statute on the other. In the first case, it embraces those only and all those entitled to share in the estate whether related by consanguinity or not; and in the second case, it embraces only those and all those related by consanguinity in the same degree. The statute we are now considering, as we have seem, is neither a statute of distribution nor one affecting the status or rights, liabilities
The rule of the civil law is indeed the natural and abstractly correct one. That of the common or canon law is purely artificial, devised solely with reference to descents; and intended to effectuate a certain public policy in relation thereto. It was not designed to afford criteria for determining degrees of kinship except with respect to descent and distributions of the estates of decedents. As to all other matters, we feel safe in affirming that of the Roman law to be the only true and determining rule, even if we were without constraint to this conclusion by our own statutes. But in these it is 'expressly provided that the degree of kindred must be computed according to the rules of the civil law. — Code, § 1918; and except with respect to some priority of right otherwise specially provided for in the descent or distribution of property, a matter not involved here, this statutory adoption of the rules of the civil law must be effectuated. — Phillips v. Petect, 35 Ala. 696. But aside from all this, and conceding the phrase “next of kin” to have, in general acceptation, two meanings, it will, when employed in a statute, be accorded that definition which is more in harmony with, and will better promote, the objects which the law makers had in view, and this especially where the meaning thus given to it is its natural import. — Endlich Int. of Statutes, §§ 73 etseq. We have no question but that the objects of this statute will be best promoted, as we have endeavored to’demonstrate, by giving to the term the interpretation which it every where, outside of statutes' of descents and distribution, bears, and which makes the father next of kin to
It is not insisted that the bill was lacking in any other jurisdictional averment, or that there was any irregularity in the proceedings in the cause. The decree rendered therein pursued the statute, deprived the inebriate of further control over his estate, and provided for its safe keeping by the appointment of a trustee. It could not be held without the utter •emasculation of the statute that, after the passing of this decree, the inebriate could convey any part of the estate covered by it and committed to the trustee. His deed to that end to •the defendant below was absolutely void, and passed no shadow of title into the grantee, upon which a recovery could be had in this action, even though it was executed when the ..grantor was entirely sober and lucid, and with the assent of •the trustee and upon full payment to, or as directed by, the trustee. It stands upon the same footing before the law as -deeds of insane persons, under guardianship, and is not merely voidable, but void.— Wait v. Maxwell, 5 Pick. (Mass.) 217; Hoovey v. Hobson, 53 Me. 457; Rannels v. Gerver, 80 Mo. 474.
The trial court properly excluded the testimony offered to show that the inebriate was competent to contract when the deed was executed, that the trustee assented to it, or received the purchase money directly or indirectly, and that the defendant had no notice of the decree depriving Williams of his estate and appointing a trustee for its safe keeping. The defendant claiming through and being privy to the inebriate, was bound by the decree whether he had actual notice of it or not. Nor was there error in giving the affirmative charge at the request of the plaintiff'.
Affirmed.