Estate of Gregorson

Mary J. Gregorson died intestate, a resident of the county of Santa Barbara and leaving estate therein. Charles W. Northrup filed a petition for letters of administration, alleging that the decedent had left a surviving husband, David Gregorson; that said David had been adjudged incompetent and that petitioner was the guardian of his person and estate.

A. M. Ruiz, the public administrator of Santa Barbara County, filed an opposition and a petition that he be appointed administrator, alleging that a marriage had been regularly solemnized between the decedent and David Gregorson in January, 1897, but that at said time, and continuously up to her death, Mary J. Gregorson “was of unsound mind and wholly mentally incapable of entering into, or consenting to any contract whatever,” and particularly any marriage or marriage contract, “and the purported and pretended marriage is and at all time has been null and void.”

To this opposition and petition Northrup filed a demurrer, which was sustained, and the court entered judgment denying the petition of Ruiz for letters and disallowing his opposition. Ruiz appeals from this judgment.

The position of appellant is that inasmuch as marriage…