In re Bane

CHIPMAN, C. Jacob Gardner, Jr., was duly appointed guardian of the estates of John H. and Edna L. Bane, minors, in March, 1892. There came into his hands as such guardian $2,-722.48. Upon the 18th of March, 1897, he was ordered by the court to render an account of his guardianship, which order was complied with. John H. Bane, having come of age, filed objections to certain items of the account. Upon the hearing the court approved and settled the account as rendered, except as to an item of $25, which was reduced to $20. No finding of fact or conclusions of law were filed or signed by the court, nor were findings waived.

The appeal is from the judgment or order settling the account and is presented by bill of exceptions. It appears that on May [53514], 1892, the guardian loaned to Laura Blackwell, who was the mother of the minor children, the sum of $500, taking her promissory note at eight per cent interest, secured by mortgage on eighty acres of land in Merced county; and on November 15, 1892, he loaned to M. J. Blackwell, husband of Laura Blackwell, $1,600 at ten per cent interest, secured by mortgage on three hundred and twenty acres of land in Fresno county. The notes were payable three years after date, and the mortgage provided that if there was default in the payment of interest the mortgagee had the option to deem the notes due and foreclose at once. The notes and mortgages were taken in the individual name of Jacob Gardner, Jr., as payee and mortgagee, and no part of principal or interest has been paid.

It is in evidence that the guardian consulted his bondsmen about mating the loans, and one of them advised it; that the loans were made for the benefit of the wards, and there was no intention on the part of the guardian to profit himself in any way by the loans; that the lands mortgaged to secure the $1,600 note were at the time worth $1,920, and were situated near lands owned by the bondsman who advised the loan and was familiar with land values at that place; that by reason of depreciation in values, caused by ‘‘the prevailing depression and hard times,” the three hundred and twenty acre tract had fallen in value to $800; that the guardian began foreclosure proceedings on this note early in 3897, and as reason for not doing so sooner he testified: “I did not foreclose the mortgage after the land declined to its present value [which was in 1894] because I believed the financial depression pervading the county would cease, times grow better, and the land in consequence increase in value. In this I have been disappointed.” As to the eighty-acre tract the evidence is that it is still of the value of $800 and was a good and ample security at the time the account was filed. It is in evidence that M. J. Blackwell has removed to the state of Nevada, and that, so far as the guardian knows, neither of the mortgagors has any property except the mortgaged premises, but there is no evidence ■of the insolvency of either of them beyond the fact just stated.