Legal guardianship

“ The right to file such an application rests with the person to be sterilized. If he is incompetent or has been put under tutelage because of feeble mindedness or being under 18 years of age, this right rests with the legal representative and is subject to approval by the court of guardianship. In all other cases of limited competence, the consent of the legal representative is needed for the application. In case an adult person has been under guardianship, the guardian’s consent is mandatory. ”

“ The father is the legal guardian of the persons, estates and earnings of the minor children. If he abandon them the mother is entitled thereto. At his death she is the guardian, if suitable. Should she marry again she loses the guardianship but, by agreement, the court may re-appoint her. ”

“ But if he did enter as guardian, that guardianship has been long since terminated and the accounts finally settled. There is no authority to prove that a guardian will not be protected by the statute of limitations after his guardianship has terminated. ”

“ But whilst the English and American law require a guardianship where the property is situated, it is conceded, that, in the due exercise of comity, preference would ordinarily be given to the person already clothed with the authority of guardian in the minor's own country. ”

“ For example, the right of usufruct in a child’s property cannot be assigned to the official guardian. Institutional guardianship consists in the exercise of guardianship by a State educational institution, or other State institution for the care of children, over children in that institution, the actual powers of guardianship being invested in the director or some other official of the institution. ”

“ Of course, the purpose in requiring any approval is to safeguard the interests of the full-blood Indian heir. Where he is a minor he can convey only through a guardian, and no court is in a better situation to appreciate and safeguard his interests than the one wherein the guardianship is pending. Besides, as a general rule, a guardianship carries with it exclusive power to direct the guardian and to supervise the management and disposal of the ward's property. ”

“ And if a guardian appears to the relations of the orphan, or to any other citizen, to act negligently or dishonestly, let them bring him before the same court, and whatever damages are given against him, let him pay fourfold, and let half belong to the orphan and half to him who procured the conviction. If any orphan arrives at years of discretion, and thinks that he has been ill-used by his guardians, let him within five years of the expiration of the guardianship be allowed to bring them to trial ”

“ It is under no constitutional obligation to perpetually continue the relationship of guardian and ward. It may, at any time, abandon its guardianship, and leave the ward to assume and be subject to all the privileges and burdens of one sui juris. And it is for Congress to determine when and how that relationship of guardianship shall be abandoned. It is not within the power of the courts to overrule the judgment of Congress. ”

“ Where property alone is concerned the term ‘curatorship’ may be employed. But it is not always easy to distinguish the two functions, for the person who controls the property tends also to control the person. This is seen when we consider the relation of guardians testamentary or dative to a surviving spouse. Guardianship certainly does not exclude the parental power, [21] but neither is it excluded by it. A surviving parent, it must be remembered, was not, as such, guardian of the property of his or her minor children, [22] however much parental power might imply control of the person. ”

“ The Guardianship Act 192 of 1993 repealed the common law rule that a father is the natural guardian of his legitimate children and replaced it by the rule that parents share guardianship in respect of their legitimate children. ”

“ The guardian of the land of an heir who is under age shall take from it only reasonable revenues, customary dues, and feudal services. He shall do this without destruction or damage to men or property. If we have given the guardianship of the land to a sheriff, or to any person answerable to us for the revenues, and he commits destruction or damage, we will exact compensation from him, and the land shall be entrusted to two worthy and prudent men of the same ‘fee’, who shall be answerable to us for the revenues, or to the person to whom we have assigned them. ”

“ A general guardian or a guardian over the person shall have the same authority over the ward’s person as the parents. With regard to the child’s property, the Rules of Court on guardianship shall govern. ”

“ The regulations contained in the present chapter shall also apply to the cases when the Department of Social Welfare shall deem it necessary to institute a guardianship for other reasons, particularly in cases of spendthrifts, or in the presence of such circumstances as shall render it dangerous or impossible to leave a given person without a guardianship. ”

“ A guardian is appointed for a minor when the latter is not subjected to any parental authority; or when, although the minor has parents, these are unfitted, through lack of means or through defect of personal character, to make a proper use of their parental authority. The analogy between parental authority and guardianship should result in the guardian, in his care for the person and property of the ward, being invested with almost the same duties and rights as belong to the possessor of parental authority. ”

“ And its solution involves, mainly, the question, what guardianship, either for relief or restraint against their own action, do courts of equity assume over persons of either six, who are of mature age, of sound mind, and, in the case of women, not under coverture. ”

“ In proceedings for a sale of such property, the general guardian appeared for the infants without being appointed guardian ad litem for them, and it was held by the Supreme Court of California, that the court had jurisdiction to order the sale and that it passed a good title; and that under the practice of the State a general guardian could appear in legal proceedings for his ward when a guardian ad litem was not appointed by the court. ”

“ If the guardian, while living or dying, should give any of the property belonging to his ward to his own children, or to any persons whomsoever, and no account of the same was made to the wards, according to the terms of the inventory which was made at the time the guardianship was accepted, and proof of this should be legally established, those who received said property from the guardian shall make full restitution to the wards. ”

“ If the guardian dies in the meantime, then his heir will take the privileges and obligations of the guardianship, and reserve out of his inherited estate the amount due to the ward. Uncles and heads of families will act as guardians for minors left with property, and they will have to render a proper account of the amount received when the minor becomes old enough to look after his own affairs. ”

“ The ward obtains or regains full capacity for civil conduct;
⁠ (2) The guardian loses the competence to be a guardian;
⁠ (3) The ward or the guardian is dead; and
⁠ (4) Any other circumstance where the people's court rules to terminate the guardianship.
⁠Where a ward is still in need of a guardian after the termination of the guardianship, a new guardian shall be appointed according to law. ”

“ Wrongful non-investment of the condition of a ward. This, if it be the offence of one who should have been guardian, coincides with wrongful detrectation of guardianship: if it be the offence of a third person, it involves in it non-investment of guardianship, which, provided the guardianship is, in the eyes of him who should have been guardian, a desirable thing, is wrongful. Wrongful interception of wardship. ”

“ In this case too each party has a remedy against the other: not only can the ward sue the guardian directly on the guardianship, but the guardian can also sue the ward by the contrary action of the same name, if he has either incurred any outlay in managing the ward's property, or bound himself on his behalf, or pledged his own property as security for the ward's creditors. ”

“ The authority of the Federal courts can only be invoked within the limits of a State for such an appointment where property of the infant is involved in legal proceedings before them, and needs the care and supervision of an officer of that kind. In such a case, to preserve the property from destruction or waste, the Federal courts may appoint a guardian to take care of it pending the proceedings. And those courts will always see that a proper guardian ad litem has charge of the infant's interests where his property is involved in proceedings before them. ”

“ Whenever, in the case of a child brought before the Court on the charge of juvenile delinquency, it shall appear in the course of the trial that the child is without proper guardianship, or is in unfavorable environment, he or she may be 179 adjudged to be in need of the care and protection of the State, and is then arraigned in Special Proceedings. ”

“ His expenditure must be such as is demanded by the interest and credit of the minor, regard being had to the value of the estate and the minor's position in life. [69] He must preserve and secure the property, [70] call in and enforce debts, [71] invest in good securities, [72] and meet the minor's liabilities as they fall due. When the guardianship comes to an end, the guardian must properly wind up the business of his office, and is deemed to remain guardian for the purpose. [73] Where there are more guardians than one, it is not necessary that they should all act ”

“ If a man abandons his child's spirit, and the child commits a crime, the state, for its own sake, assumes the temporary guardianship thereof, and puts him in a jail. When a man deserts his child, taking no concern about his education, I venture to make the suggestion, whether it would not be well, as a last resort, for the State to assume the guardianship of the child for its own sake, and for the child's sake. ”

“ The same statute also empowers the high court of justice, “on being satisfied that it is for the welfare of the infant,” to “remove from his office any testamentary guardian or any guardian appointed or acting by virtue of this act,” and also to appoint another in place of the guardian so removed.
The same statute gives power to a court sitting in divorce practically to take away from a parent guilty of a matrimonial offence all rights of guardianship. ”

“ Persons not subject to power may still be subject either to guardians or to curators, or may be exempt from both forms of control. We will first examine what persons are subject to guardians and curators, and thus we shall know who are exempt from both kinds of control. And first of persons subject to guardianship or tutelage. ”

“ But in none of the cases to which our attention has been called has a judgment been upheld where a guardian ad litem had been appointed for a non-resident infant against whom a purely personal demand was prosecuted. If such a case exists, the judgment in it can have no greater force than one rendered for a personal demand against a non-resident upon any other form of constructive service; and that constructive service will not give jurisdiction in such cases is the established doctrine of this court. ”

“ A guardian, unless his powers in this respect are restricted by statute, is authorized, by virtue of his office, and without any order of court, to sell his ward's personal property, and reinvest the proceeds, and to collect or compromise and release debts due to the ward, subject to the liability to be called to account in the proper court if he has acted without due regard to the ward's interest. ”

“ The circuit court alone had jurisdiction to inquire into and determine all questions relating to the property, and the rights growing out of its custody, held by its own officer under color of its authority, saving, of course, all rights of action against the marshal personally for his wrongful and illegal acts resulting in injury to third persons, except such as involved the legal right to take the property out of his possession. ”

“ If in the state of the forum the general guardian has the right to bring suit in his own name as such guardian, and does so, he is to be treated as the party plaintiff so far as Federal jurisdiction is concerned, even though suit might have been instituted in the name of the ward by guardian ad litem or next friend. ”

“ Every thing would depend on the character of the legal guardian or trustee; and even this could afford no adequate protection. The law permits an owner to do many things which it would not suffer a guardian or a trustee to do. ”

“ It is a proceeding in rem, the property itself in custodia legis; and if a guardian had been appointed, it would have been but a desecration of the power of the court, which, in the proceeding before us, was exercised by the court itself, through the agency and instrumentality of its officers.
The rule in respect to adversary suits against infants, requiring the appointment of a guardian, pendente lite, has no sort of application to the proceedings in question. ”

“ Of the several species of guardians, the first are guardians by nature: viz. the father and (in some cases) the mother of the child. For, if an estate be left to an infant, the father is by common law the guardian, and must account to his child for the profits [b] . And, with regard to daughters, it seems by construction of the statute 4 & 5 Ph. & Mar. c. 8. that the father might by deed or will assign a guardian to any woman-child under the age of sixteen, and if none be so assigned, the mother shall in this case be guardian [c] . ”