Appling v. Des Granges

Katherine des Granges was declared insane hy the County Court of Brown County, Wisconsin, on October 12, 1911. Thereafter, in a proceeding in the Superior Court of Orange County, California, the appellant herein was appointed guardian of the person and estate of said Katherine des Granges, and is still acting as such guardian. On July 1, 1926, the County Court of Brown County, Wisconsin, entered a judgment and decree declaring Katherine des Granges to be sane. Thereafter the respondent herein, as friend and attorney for said Katherine des Granges, filed a petition alleging that the said Katherine des Granges is now sane and competent, and praying that the court order an investigation into her mental condition, to the end that she be restored to capacity. The cause went to trial upon the issues presented by this petition and an answer thereto. Judgment was entered in favor of the petitioner, and the guardian has appealed.

The court found “that the said Katherine des Granges is now sane and of sound mind and fully capable of caring for herself and managing her property.” The only question involved in this appeal is whether or not the evidence sustains this finding. The ward was not…

I concur in the opinion of Mr. Justice Barnard. Were it not for the fact that the investigation before the court in the proceeding from which this appeal was taken was obviously confined to the question of the mental sanity of the ward, the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment of restoration to capacity to manage her own affairs might be upheld.

The trial court found in favor of capacity, and there were general statements of the witnesses for petitioner as to her general competency. But, as pointed out in the opinion here, the testimony was all directed to the question of sanity, and the statements of the trial judge, as shown in the record, so clearly indicate that the findings were governed by the sole question as to whether the petitioner was sane or insane, that it must be conceded that the further conditions affecting her competency to take care of herself or her property, were not taken into account.

Insanity implies want of capacity, but the mere restoration to sanity, such as justifies a discharge from detention in an asylum, does not determine such a restoration as to terminate the necessity for guardianship.

This is indicated by section 2189 of the…