Farris v. Witcher
Farris v. Witcher
Opinion of the Court
Ralph W. Farris and Mrs. Lillie Vaughn, sometimes referred to herein as Mrs. Lemro L. Vaughn, acting for themselves and on behalf of the alleged incompetent, Lem-ro L. Vaughn, brought this action in the county court of Seminole county, Oklahoma, and in an ex parte proceeding said Ralph W. Farris, of the State of Maine (the state in which the Sinclair Prairie Oil Company was incorporated), was appointed guardian of Lemro L. Vaughn, and Mrs. Lillie Vaughn, Vaughn’s wife, was made the resident agent of the guardian. Immediately thereafter, on October 2, 1945, a suit was filed in the superior court of Seminole county against Sinclair Prairie Oil Company by Farris as the guardian of Lemro L. Vaughn. On December 21, 1945, Henry A. Witcher, who was superintendent of Sinclair Prairie Oil Company at their station in Seminole county, filed a petition as a friend of Lemro L. Vaughn to have his mental capacity restored. There can be no question that Witcher was an acquaintance of Vaughn’s, but was not moving primarily in Vaughn’s behalf. It is also plain to us that this incompetency proceeding was filed in Seminole county for the purpose of having a guardian appointed in order that the case against Sinclair Prairie Oil Company could not be removed to the Federal court. The counsel for the guardian and Mr. Vaughn very ingeniously put this proceeding through.
The county court refused to entertain Witcher’s petition to have competency restored, on the ground that Witcher was not a “friend” of Vaughn under the meaning of. the statute, Title 58, §854, O.S. 1941. In this regard we do not think that it was necessary that Witcher be a “friend” in the strictest sense of the word in order to file this motion for the restoration of competency, for the reason that he had a right to feel, under the facts and circumstances, ■ that the county court was overreached and that his employer, Sinclair Prairie Oil Company, was being imposed upon, and that some of their rights were being taken away from them; and it is our opinion that any person would have a right, under the circumstances in this case, to petition the court to restore the competency of an alleged incompetent when there was in fact no incompetency existing. Wit-cher perfected his appeal to the district court, and the district court proceeded to hear evidence in the case, and after hearing the evidence, reversed the action of the trial court in refusing to restore competency and held that the competency of Vaughn should be restored. There was evidence offered by the guardian, Farris, and by Witcher. A reading of that evidence convinces us that Vaughn was not in
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In re VAUGHN'S GUARDIANSHIP. FARRIS v. WITCHER
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published