Estate of Watson

SLOSS, J.

The superior court of Stanislaus County made an order adjudging Sarah A. Watson to he incompetent, and appointing a guardian of her estate. From this order the alleged incompetent appeals.

The principal contention of the appellant is that the evidence is insufficient to support the-finding of incompetency. Our study of the record has satisfied us that there was no substantial testimonyt showing that Mrs. Watson’s mental faculties were impaired to any such extent, if at all, as to justify the court in taking the management of her property out of her hands and subjecting it to the control of a guardian.

Mrs. Watson was a widow, seventy-eight years of age, the mother of six sons and three daughters. She was residing on a six acre tract of land near the city of Modesto. Here she lived with her son, Walter Watson, who was the owner of an adjoining parcel of three acres. Mrs. Watson owned a number of pieces of farming land in the states of North Dakota and Minnesota, of the aggregate value of fifty or sixty thousand dollars. Her husband had died some seven years before this proceeding was begun, and for some time after his death her daughter, Mrs. McLain, had lived with her. Mrs. McLain moved to her own home, and some time later Walter Watson brought his family from Minnesota to California, and took up his abode with his -mother. This occurred about three years before the filing of the application for letters of guardianship. In October, 1916, Mrs. Watson conveyed to her son, Walter, for a considera

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tion of two hundred dollars, the six acre tract upon which he and she were living. The land was worth from four to six thousand dollars, and it is not pretended by anyone that the sum paid was regarded as an adequate consideration for a sale. Indeed, it is apparent that Mrs. Watson and her son did not view the transaction as a' sale for a price in money alone. The evidence indicates that the grantor desired to give to her son, Walter, some inducement for remaining on the place, and that she expected to have a home there with him. She seems to have had the belief that some money consideration was necessary to the validity of a conveyance of real property. Except for the payment of the two hundred dollars, the transfer was really a gift, made in the expectation (though without any binding promise) that the donee would provide a home for his mother. The idea that Mrs. Watson was mentally in-' competent does not seem to have occurred to anyone until she made the conveyance under discussion. The recording of the deed came to the attention of some of the grantee’s brothers and sisters, and caused dissatisfaction and ill feeling, which speedily culminated in the institution of this proceeding.