Guardianship of Boutz

PULLEN, P. J.

Appellant here contends that the superior court erred in appointing a nonresident as guardian of the person and estate of a resident insane person.

In 1913 Minnie Boutz, then the wife of M. M. Boutz, was adjudged insane and committed to a state hospital. In 1916 M. M. Boutz was appointed guardian of the person and estate of his wife. In 1928 Minnie Boutz was paroled from the hospital to the care of her brother, residing in Oregon. In 1932 Boutz resigned as guardian and his account was settled and approved. In his resignation as guardian he set forth that Minnie Boutz was under the personal care and observation of her brother in Oregon, and that it would be for the best interests of the incompetent that the brother be appointed guardian of her person and estate. Thereupon, upon a petition duly filed, W. J. Albert, the brother, was appointed such guardian of her person and estate.

Thereafter accounts were annually filed by-the guardian and duly settled and approved until 1936, when Minnie Boutz having died, he filed his final account. Francis E. Boutz, a son of deceased, residing in California, was appointed administrator of her estate, and to this final account of the guardian, both as administrator and as an heir at law, filed objections. The gist of the objections was that W. J. Albert, being a nonresident of California, the court was without; jurisdiction to appoint him as guardian. It is also claimed that even assuming the appointment to be valid, respondent never qualified because of his nonresidence, and never having qualified, his acts were void.

It is further claimed that in any event the superior court of California was without jurisdiction to settle respondent’s accounts except in so far as they related to the property of the ward in California, and could make no valid order affecting any property beyond the boundaries of the state.

[646]

We are not called upon to determine whether the court could have appointed a nonresident as guardian of the person as that question has become immaterial by reason of the death of the ward.

The superior court being a court of general jurisdiction, an order appointing a guardian of an incompetent person is not open to collateral attack, and will be presumed to have been correctly made.