Court Opinion

ID: 9644212
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:50:14.962682+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:09.785105
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellee Lowery forcefully opposes our holding “that the minor plaintiff, through her next friend and attorneys of record, could not waive her right to have a limiting instruction as to the admission into evidence of the assignment from her parents to the Berrys”; and “that the minor plaintiff, through her next friend and attorneys of record, could not waive the defects, if any, in the verdict, by filing a motion for judgment on the verdict.” It is argued that controlling here is the rule stated in 43 C.J.S., Infants, § 114, p. 312: “An infant client ordinarily is bound by the acts of his counsel who is duly authorized to act *923and while acting within the limits of his authority.”
Obviously the assignment in question contained recitals susceptible of a construction prejudicial to the interest of the minor; also that plaintiffs’ motion for judgment (shown in footnote) was in eifect a request that final judgment be entered against the child. We therefore concluded in original opinion that the further rule stated in 43 C.J.S., Infants, § 114b, p. 312, was applicable to such state of the record ‘“The authority and powers of the attorney -are limited to those possessed by the guardian ad litem or next friend. * * * The attorney cannot waive or admit away any substantial rights of the infant, or consent to anything which may be prejudicial to the infant. However, he may make a valid consent or waiver as to matters which merely facilitate the litigation and cannot prejudicially affect the rights of the infant.”
Appellee’s principal cases in support of his points, Spotts v. Spotts, 331 Mo. 917, 55 S.W.2d 977, 87 A.L.R. 660, and Byrnes v. Butte Brewing Co., 44 Mont. 328,119 P. 788, are cited in Annotations to 87 A.L.R., pp. 672, 675, as holding that infants are bound by the same rule as adults. But, as remarked in Haden v. Eaves, 55 N.M. 40,226 P.2d 457, 459: “A study of these cases shows they lend but little support to such rule.” Justice McGhee in the Haden appeal quotes with approval the following from Parken v. Safford, 48 Fla. 290, 37 So. 567 (where the guardian ad litem had failed to properly protect his record): “ ‘It must also be borne in mind that one of the defendants was an infant, and therefore “it was the duty of a court of equity to see that the interests of minors are protected in suits before it, whether the claim or defense be properly pleaded or not and for this purpose the chancellor should look to the record in all its parts, and of his own motion give to the minors the benefit of all objections and exceptions appearing thereon, as if specially pleaded.”’ ” Relevant here, the New Mexico Supreme Court had this to say: “Here we have a case where the interests of the minor and his father are separable both have appealed and we see what we believe to be a serious error made in the case against the interests of the minor. We cannot in good conscience sit with folded hands, adopt the attitude of umpires in a contest between adults, apply our ordinary rules of civil procedure and say that because of a mistake of the guardian ad litem in trying the case on an erroneous theory the minor must lose all.”
Above quotations are in accord with the “relaxed rule” where infant litigants are involved, as discussed in Annotations to 87 A.L.R., p. 675; and our own Courts exercise equal vigilance on behalf of a person non sui juris. “The rights of minors, who in law are not capable of protecting themselves, should receive a more liberal construction and protection than those of adults.” Brooke v. Clark, 57 Tex. 105. “The minors are not appealing, and have not cross-assigned on this appeal; but they are by law wards of the court, and it is the duty of the court, as we conceive it, to see that their interests are protected.” Eckert v. Stewart, Tex.Civ.App., 207 S.W. 317, 323, writ ref. All matters presented on rehearing, upon consideration, are overruled.
United Insurance Company calls attention to the fact that no exception was taken to its dismissal in the trial court, with judgment final as to it. Such party’s motion to that effect is sustained and reversal herein is limited to the issues in controversy between plaintiffs and defendant John Wesley Lowery. Original opinion reformed accordingly.