Court Opinion

ID: 9442865
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:02:11.630918+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:15.851519
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
The plaintiff asks for rehearing of so much of our decision as approves the appointment of D. Victor Bornn as guardian for the plaintiff to succeed Jacob Peiffer, last surviving guardian named in the joint will dated April 25, 1911, of her deceased husband, Richard Edgar Clifford Callwood and herself. She again asserts as she did at the original argument that under the joint will which named Jacob Peiffer and Otto Zwanziger in succession as guardians it was contemplated that the guardianship should continue after the death of the last survivor of these individuals only if the survivor of them in his lifetime transferred his authority to another guardian and that this was never done. Accordingly, she says, the testamentary guardianship lapsed and she strongly urges that under the Danish law it cannot be revived by the district court except on her application. In support of this proposition she cites the excerpt from Bentzon’s treatise, Den Danske Arveret, which appears in footnote 15 to our opinion.
The plaintiff’s contention in this regard is without merit. In the first place we think that it is clear from the testator’s will that he intended that his widow’s retention of their joint estate should be subject to the guardianship contemplated by the Danish law. By naming a guardian, *558and a successor guardian and by authorizing the survivor-in turn to name his successor the testator took steps which he evidently thought would be adequate to carry out his will in this respect. Certainly there is nothing in the will to indicate any intention on the part of the testator that the guardianship should absolutely terminate if these provisions should fail. He did not -exclude the possibility that in such, circumstances an appointment might be made by the court.
In the second place the plaintiff is wrong in thinking that under the Danish law the power of the court to appoint a guardian for a widow remaining in possession of the joint estate of her husband and herself in succession to a testamentary guardian who has died is limited to cases in which the widow applies to the court for such an appointment. Indeed the excerpt from Bentzon’s treatise upon which the plaintiff relies itself indicates the contrary by suggesting that the guardianship of a widow in these circumstances is based under the Danish law not only on the needs of the widow but also on those of the living issue. Our examination of the Danish law satisfies us that it authorizes such a guardianship not only for the assistance and potection of a widow who remains in possession of the joint estate, but also for the protection of the testator’s children who are excluded from their inheritance during the widow’s lifetime. Accordingly in case of the death of a testamentary guardian for a widow the Danish law confers full power upon the court to appoint a successor guardian if the needs of the widow or the living issue require it and this power is not limited to cases in which application for such appointment is made by the widow.
The petition for rehearing will be denied.