The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-21
FITCH ON
MAGOON
Continued from Page IL

q,
under guardianship as a spendthrift one
who is drunkard, and is so wasting
his estate as to bring himself to want
and suffering l do not deny, but the case
must be a clear one and the specific
grounds set forth in the statute must
be proven beyond a peradventure to ex-
ist for a spendthrift trust law is the
creature of statute alone. 1t it unknown
to the common law. 1t is an Offspring
of Puritanism. 1t came here from New
England and it must have come around
the Horn, for if it had made the journey
to San Francisco overland it might have
died for want of sympathy and susten-
ance.
In few of the great progressive States
that stretch between the Rocky noun
tains and the Pacific sea can a spend
| thrift trust law be found among the
statutes In order to engender and main
tain such a law in these islands it re-
CURED combination of Missionary
zeal, against intemperance, operating
upon kanaka unthrift, and sustained by
Puritan disposition to earn commits
sions and fees by meddling with other
peoples business. All these elements ex-
list here, and spendthrift trusts form a
large share of the business of our Courts
Their scope once extended so far as to
reach King upon his throne, and Luz
nalilo was permitted to reign but not
to eXpend his royal salary in wine.
NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS.
Mr.. Magoon was appointed a guardian
upon the petition of Mrs. Hart. She was
his client in the application. He ought
not L submit in all candor to have
sought the place of guardian. 1t should
have gone to another than Mr.. Magoon
But having been appointed he became
by virtue of his appointment, not only
the guardian but the attorney and rep
resentative of his ward against all the
world, including Mrs. Hart
1T is maxim that mo man can serve
two masters and Mr.. Magoon has not
such a judicial mind as enabled him to
defy the maxim and fairly represent the
interests of both Mrs. Hart and Mr..
Love where those interests came in con-
flict. Mr.. Magoon has an instinct of
thrift, an impulse for the accumulation
of property, that appears to dull his ap-
probation of surrounding conditions He
exhibits that disposition to this very
hour. and exhibits it even in Il case
where the matter at issue is of no per-
sonal advantage to himself or either of
his clients.
For instance the estate of James
Love owns lot on the southwest corner
King and Kekaulike streets, the mini
mum value of which, as stated by the
experts, is $4,000 Your honor has
right to take judicial knowledge that the
rate of interest here on good security s
about per cent, and $4,000 would pro-
duce an annual income of s., 600 while the
present annual income from that lot is
$1,000. Yet Mr.. Magoon has refused to
apply for an order to sell that lot, be-
cause. it cannot be sold without extin-
gushing a nine years lease on the cor
ner of it, which John Emmeluth holds,
and Emmeluth demands the price of
such extinguishment that his nine years
lease on the twenty feet lot across the
street be extended for twenty years Mr.
Magoon refuses to submit to what he
considers an undue exaction of Emme-
luth. He thinks it more to the inter
ests of the spendthrift' estate to allow
the S. w. corner lot, or a large part of
it, to remain unrented and unproductive
until the nine years leases on both of
the corner lots shall expire. II the spend
thrift were under forty years of age MIR
Magoon's policy might be a wise one,
but the spendthrift is over sixty years
of age and before the nine years shall
expire he will probably have passed from
the scene of human activities. Mr.. Ma
goon'S idea is that while Mr. Love lin
gers on earth he should submit to a loss
of income and life of frugality, for the
L
after.
WHO WOULD INHERIT.
And Mr. Magoon cannot be sure that
the somebody who is TO come after will
be Mrs. Hart. If Mr.. Love were to die
intestate his property under the law
would go to the nephews, one of whom
aided to bring him into a spendthrift
trust by making a forced loan of $500
from him. AT present the bulk of his
estate would go by the villa will in
spired by the woman whom Mr.. Magoon
derides and condemnS,-to Mrs. Hart and
her brother. but who can say that Mr.
Love will not, if he should be kept in this
spendthrift trust by the efforts of his
daughter, who can say that he will not
alter that will and leave his property
elsewhere? a will is the one document
that ne still has legal power to execute,
and II that will be set aside the prop
erty goes to the nephews. l do not say
that he would change that will I do
not believe that he would do SO.
But Mr.. Magoon cannot know this.
Above his fealty to DR. Love, above his
devotion to the interests of Mrs Hart,
he places the interests of the estate
always the interests of the estate'-the
immoral entity which takes no note of
human conditions or human needs. The
mind of Mr. Magoon resembles hell, for
| it is paved with good intentions, and so
paved it leads him to act not in the
interests of Mr.. Love and not in the true
interests Of Mrs. Hart, but to conserve
the property for the future without re-
gard to the present needs of It's owner.
Mr.. Magoon seems to consider himself
rather as trustee for an unknown pos
terity than guardian for an old man
who needs and ought to have more of
IF
WHAT WAS THE RESULT
This spirit has apparently dominated
every year of Mr. Magoon's administra-
ton of his duties as guardian. Taking
those years in their order we find that
the net receipts for the first year of Mr.
Magoons administration after paying in
terest, insurance and debts of Mr.. Love
were $6S0.47. OF this amount Mr.. Ma
COON gave Mrs. Hart nearly half, or
S32520 without any order of Court, and
without any authority except the consent
of Mr.. Love. AS a result Mr. Loves in
come, which was still further lessened
by 5000 sent to his son in Japan, was
reduced to $l55.27. His guardian however
paid him $1,000 for his personal use and
at the close of the first years admins
tration Mr.. Love owed his guardian