Estate of Waltz

California Court of Appeal Aug 15, 1966 No. Civ. No. 28646Published

Before: Frampton

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Holding. The court held that a nomination for administrator made by a judicially declared incompetent person is void under Civil Code section 40, and that the guardian of a surviving spouse is entitled to priority for letters of administration over second cousins.

Issues

Whether a nomination for administrator executed by a judicially declared incompetent person is valid.
Whether the guardian of a surviving spouse has priority over second cousins for letters of administration.
Whether written findings of fact are required when the issue of priority is a question of law.

Disposition. affirmed

Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion

“Hildegard having been adjudged a mentally incompetent person and not having been restored to capacity, such nominations and delegation were void.”

“The guardian is to be considered a member of the class to which his ward belongs and ahead of all lower classes”

“The respondent, standing in the class of his ward, the surviving spouse, and being a competent person, is entitled to first priority to be appointed as administrator of the estate of William.”

244 Cal.App.2d 217 (1966) Estate of WILLIAM WALTZ, Deceased. DEL THURBER, Petitioner and Respondent,

NINA M. MAXSEINER, Objector and Appellant.

Civ. No. 28646. California Court of Appeals. Second Dist., Div. Three.

Aug. 15, 1966. Elsie P. Manahan for Petitioner and Respondent.

M. Craig Medoff for Contestant and Appellant.

FRAMPTON, J. pro tem. [fn. *]

Appeal from an order granting letters of administration to respondent and denying letters of administration to appellant.

The file below discloses that William Waltz died intestate in the County of Los Angeles on July 28, 1963. He left surviving him his wife, Hildegard Lindstedt Waltz, who had been adjudged to be mentally incompetent and who was confined as a mentally incompetent person in the Veterans Administration Hospital at American Lake in the State of Washington.

On July 30, 1963, the respondent was appointed special administrator of the estate of William. On August 23, 1963, the respondent was appointed as the guardian of the person and estate of Hildegard. On September 12, 1963, the respondent filed his petition, as guardian of Hildegard, seeking appointment as the administrator of the estate of William. Hearing on this petition was set for October 8, 1963.

In the petition for special letters of administration the respondent had given the names of Fred Waltz, Laura Waltz, Margaret Shendel, Fern Mosgrove and Harold Moore, and had listed them as adult cousins and had given their addresses showing them to be residents of jurisdictions other than the State of California. In the petition for letters of administration [219] filed by the respondent the foregoing names were omitted with the explanation that "The relatives listed on the Petition for Special Letters of Administration are not included in this Petition inasmuch as your Petitioner learned that these relatives were all children of deceased brothers and sisters of decedent William J. Waltz's father and therefore not heirs at law of William J. Waltz."

On September 30, 1963, the appellant filed her petition seeking her appointment as the administratrix of the estate of William. She alleged in her petition that she was a second cousin of the deceased. This petition alleged that the deceased left a surviving spouse, Hildegard Waltz, a mentally incompetent person, but left no children, issue of deceased children, mother or father, sisters or brothers, or issue of deceased sisters or brothers surviving him. The petition further alleged that the following named persons were second cousins and were heirs at law of the deceased: Pearl Metting, Harold Waltz, J. V. Waltz, O. W. Waltz, Marie Waltz, Bertha Waltz Kerwin, and Nina Waltz Maxseiner, the petitioner and appellant herein.

Estate of Waltz

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